Lost Soul
by Rebelrugger0307
Summary: One young woman's life is prolonged when an Elven healer saves her life, telling her she has unfinished business. Forced to wander Middle Earth, she finds her story intertwined with that of the Ring of Power and the Fellowship.
1. Beginnings

High in the mountains of the North, a battle raged. Man vs. Orc, good against evil. The air was thick with the whizzing of arrows; like bees in the summer lowlands. But none of the combatants were thinking of the lowlands, or summer, or even insects. They were all wondering if the arrow or bit of steel meant to cut their life thread was in the battle today.

* * *

The battle had ended. Horses moved slowly amongst the fallen combatants and nudged their fallen masters. None stirred for the battle weary beasts. The stench of death was heavy in the thin mountain air and hung like a pall over the heavy black rocks. Patches of snow that had been the purest of white before the battle had begun were now died a deep crimson with the blood that ran in rivulets over the boulders and into the crevasses. One black mare, a tiny horse compared to the great war stallions around her, picked her way through the carnage and nudged and snuffled the body of one of the warriors. She prodded impatiently and managed to roll her master over. A groan escaped the warrior's lips as sunlight penetrated their vision.

"Good girl…" the horse knelt down amongst the rocks close to her master and allowed them to pull their battered body into the saddle. The rider was slight of build, made to look larger by the slight build of the horse. Horse and rider plodded along slowly, the horse knowing it had to get to the low country to get aid for its wounded master.

* * *

The rider could not even grasp the reins, nor could they even think of directing the beast beneath them. The long, dark gray wool cloak hung across their left shoulder and covered the wound in their left leg. The right arm was twisted and hung limp at their side. The hood hid a full head of long dark hair, streaked with the ruddy gold and copper highlights of someone who spent long hours in the sun. The black leather of their jerkin was slashed and punctured and blood seeped slowly from the dozen or more wounds.

* * *

No one would guess from looking at the figure on horseback that it was a woman. The cut of her clothes and the size of her horse made her look larger. She was used to riding in the back of her patrol and remaining silent. She was a quiet leader and a fierce fighter. She was often the one to lead a charge into battle; she would have done so this day, had they not been ambushed.

She had owned the horse for a majority of her life. It had been a gift from her father. The horse had seen her through many a battle and had always brought her out safely. But the mare, as smart and loyal as she was, was a horse first and foremost and forgot the weight on her back and started to make it's way to water. It was a laborious trip for the old mare, made more so when her charge slumped heavily forward across her neck.

_Sweet Water_

It had been some time since horse and rider left the field of battle. It had been a longer time since the mare had been near water that smelled so clean and sweet. A fleeting though of the dead weight across her neck was chased away by the soothing water rushing past her strong forelegs.

_Sweet Water_

The mare bent her head to the river and drank deeply of the cold water. It was mountain runoff….icy cold and sweet with the essence of highland flowers and grasses. With every sip the mare felt her burden lighten and it seemed as if it slipped away. Refreshed, the mare plodded across the river, never once taking notice of the black mass floating with the current downstream---her charge born away on the sweet water to who knew where.

* * *

The children of Imladris stood on the banks of the RIVER; their own horses drinking of the cool water. Young Arwen picked up smooth rounded pebbles washed purple, blue, and jade green by the fast moving water. Her brothers, twins, and mischievous at best, stood talking about the latest prank they wished to inflict upon the valley of the elves and their father's hall. Guards stood back staring stonily into the dense forest on the opposite bank, listening for any sign of trouble.

"The river cries…" Arwen said, her toes touching the edge of the icy water. "It sings a death song."

"What is that?" One of the twins pointed towards a dark mass floating down the river. The guards descended upon the banks and whisked the children back to the city of the elves as the mass came to a stop against the rocks.

* * *

"My Lord Elrond, something is in the river…"

"And?" The elf lord said looking up from a scroll impatiently.

"What shall we do?"

"Well, what is it?" Elrond placed the scroll back on the shelf and turned to the lieutenant who stood uneasily in his study.

"We don't know, sir. We got the children away and came to you directly."

"Very well then, let us investigate." The tall dark haired elf strolled leisurely form the room. Ever since the elfin city had been beset upon by trolls and a particularly nasty band of orcs, the defense forces of the city had been on high alert. As they approached the river's edge they saw a number of other elves standing in a tight ring on the shore.

"What's the meaning of this?" Elrond asked as he approached.

"Sir, it is a woman." One of the elves said. "I took it upon myself to investigate closer and found it was her that caused the alarm. I took the liberty of pulling her from the water." The other elves parted and allowed the elf lord to look at the woman sprawled on the rocks. The stately elf knelt beside her and held his hand above her mouth and felt the warm, shallow air against his palm.

"She lives---take her to the healing halls immediately." The elf that had pulled her from the river picked her up and moved with great speed to the city.

* * *

For three days the girl convalesced in the healing halls and for three days the healers did everything within their power to try to heal her.

"Her bond to life is very thin, but her spirit is strong." One of them said to Elrond. "I know not what else to do; I fear she is meant to die."

"I have an idea of what we can do." Elrond said quietly. "I want everyone to leave this room, do you understand?"

"Yes, my lord."

Elrond returned with a silver haired elf with silver eyes. The pale elf was a seer; one to be both respected and feared. It was a well known fact that this was the elf to turn to should one begin to fade. He could either guide you to Mandos' halls or lead you back to the living.

"This woman?" the elf asked as he approached the bedside. "She is mortal."

"Mortal life fades much the same as the life of an elf." Elrond said. "I ask you, Mellon---help her as you have helped so many of our people." The seer bowed to Elrond and moved to the bedside of the mortal woman. He perched precariously beside her and stared for some time.

"Re Ohtar—" the pale elf placed one hand on her chest and the other against her cool cheek. Slowly, the room around him faded from his sight and he found himself walking up a gently hill, the long grasses blowing about his robes in a breeze laced with the tangy scent of the sea. As he crested the rise he looked out over the silver sea, the salt spray bellowing up in mist over the cliff and hitting him in the face. It was a beautiful sight. He was so overwhelmed by the vision he faced that he did not notice the woman standing on the cliff's edge.

"Who are you?" The voice drew his attention to the dark woman, her hair whipped about her face in the breeze but she did not move or turn her back to the elf.

"Lle quena I'lambe tel' Eldalie?"

"A little." The girl answered in the common tongue. "Amin merna quen…common tongue."

"How did you know I was here?" He asked. He'd been very quiet.

"I just did. Now answer my question." The seer saw her hand resting upon the hilt of her blade, a blade that looked too large on the hip of the woman.

"I am Armand. I am a seer—a spirit guide, if you will-- for the house of Elrond." For the first time the woman turned her eyes to his and he gasped. Her eyes were so dark a shade of brown that they looked nearly black, flecked through with shards of the greenest emerald.

"A spirit guide?"

"Aye, 'tis my duty to help guide fading elves either to the great beyond or back to the light."

"Then why are you here? I am not an elf." She stalked past him and moved through the tall grasses towards a line of trees farther inland.

"Lord Elrond believes you hang in the balance---that your spirit is strong, but your heart is not." The woman stopped, her back rigid. "I tend to agree with him."

"What would you know of my heart?"

"I feel it is broken. I am—in tune, with such things."

"Then get out of tune with it!" She snapped. "My heart is not your concern!"

"You may not think so, but I am vested in you." Armand followed behind the woman and was shocked when the girl wielded the large blade against him. She slid the blade menacingly close to his throat.

"I never asked you here."

"You didn't need to. Your life thread is thin…"

"Then let it break! I would welcome the peace!"

"Your spirit is still strong within you. This I can see. This is not your time to die." Armand turned his mind against the girl and changed her blade into a hissing snake which coiled back and made to bite the one who wielded it. She quickly dropped the serpent and stepped away. "Why is it someone so young would care to die?" He asked. The woman glared at him. "What in your life could make you hate living so?"

She was silent some time before answering him. Finally, a resigned and defeated look came over her features.

"I'm tired. I'm tired of the pain and the suffering of being alone." The woman led Armand farther down the hill and away from the sea, though the tang of salt still hung heavy in the air. A woman sat playing in a field with a small child, flowers and ribbons adorning her long dark hair. Suddenly a band of primitive orcs, wargs, and men dressed in black came over the hill. The woman picked the child up and ran screaming. She did not make it far before she was cut down by one of the orcs.

"My mother." The girl beside him explained. "She died trying to protect my sister." The girl turned to face Armand. "I was hiding up yonder tree. I was angry because she paid greater mind to my sister than she did to me."

"And you witnessed your mother's death?"

"I see it every night in my dreams." The girl sighed. "I ran to the village for help when I found the will to move. You can imagine what I found."

The scene shifted abruptly and the woman and elf now stood in what had once been a village. A small child, smeared with ash and soot, sat amongst the skeletal ruins of the houses. Men rode into the village slowly, blades drawn cautiously as they surveyed the damage.

"Child…is everyone dead?"

"All save I." The voice was flat, yet surprisingly strong for one so young. She stared defiantly at the men on horseback.

"Niece?" One of the men moved forward, his features indistinct. The seer was slightly disturbed by the lack of facial distinction in the woman's memories. "Where is my sister, your mother?"

"Dead…up yonder hill….I could not move her."

The horses and riders faded away.

"He was different when he came back." The woman said. "I rode with him once, but by then he had fallen to darker powers." The scene shifted again to show a road choked with dead soldiers. "I found my cousins among the Dunedain in the North. I've ridden with them for years."

"There is much pain in your life. But how did you come to be in your present condition?"

The scene shifted again and Armand found himself standing beside the woman in a highland battlefield. Arrows and war cries of orcs filled the air around him.

"This is the last thing I remember." The seer felt pain in his head, back, chest and legs. It nearly brought him to his knees. "I know I was wounded, my horse came for me." She turned and saw the pinched look on his once placid features. "But I remember nothing after I climbed onto her back."

"You are a mighty warrior. It is part of you---you will indeed survive."

"I want to find peace." The woman sat down and the vision changed back to that of the silver sea. "I don't want to go on."

"It is not your time. It is not your decision to make." Armand said, "I sense in you that your time is yet to come." The woman looked up at him and shook her head.

"I've done all I can. It IS my time! I deserve that much!"

"Take my hand…allow me to bring you back." He extended his hand and waited for the woman to take it.

"Why? Why should I return to the land of the living?" Her dark eyes traveled over the elf and his fine flowing robes. "I know how badly I was wounded. I know the pain I was in. I know you've felt a little bit of it, I saw it in your eyes." Armand didn't move his gaze from hers. "I rather like it here….there is no pain."

"You cannot stay here." The seer said extending his hand further still. "You must come with me."

"No!" The woman stood suddenly and started to back away from the elf, but a shooting pain in her leg stopped her and brought her to her knees. "Stop it! Don't come near me!"

Another wave of pain tore through her as Armand towered over her, his silver eyes seemed to pulse with light.

"_TAMPA_!"

* * *

The seer toppled from the bedside and would have landed on the floor had Elrond not been there to catch him. The woman's eyes opened and she looked up at Elrond as he supported Armand.

"_Creoso a'baramin, creoso Rivendell._" Elrond said with a bow as he helped the seer from the room.

* * *

Re ohtar--- She is a warrior

"Lle quena I'lambe tel' Eldalie?"---- Do you Speak Elvish?

"Amin merna Quen…" ------I wish to speak….

"Tampa"---- Stop!

"Creoso a'baramin, creoso Rivendell. "----- welcome to my home, welcome to Rivendell,


	2. Ever On

A week later, the woman was moving about the city slowly. Her leg still pained her, but she would not listen to the healers and would not stay in bed. She walked with a heavy limp and her arm was held close to her body in a sling. She stood on one of the many balconies overlooking the valley of the elves, but didn't really see the view below her. She sensed someone standing behind her, but did not turn.

"I told you it was not your time, and I meant it." Armand stood behind her, his silver eyes seeming to pierce her skin. "You had to come back."

"_Mankoi_?" The seer's elfin ears picked up the barely audible word.

"I told you, your time is not done. You have much still to do."

"_Mani naa ta_?"

"That is not for me to see." The woman's shoulder's slumped slightly and she sighed.

"Then I will go forth and do it." She stepped away from the balcony and made to move back inside, but her leg gave out beneath her and she fell to her knees. Armand knelt beside her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Before you set off on your quest, you must first heal." He helped her to her feet and slowly escorted her back inside. "Then you may go forth and conquer all of Middle Earth if you so choose."

She convalesced in Rivendell for a month and in that time, the elves learned much about her. They discovered her name was Intara, that she was from a village near the sea and was a fierce warrior. She and young Arwen frequented the river and taught one another many things.

* * *

But Intara was a wanderer; a member of the Rangers of the North and no matter how welcome she was made to feel or how hard Arwen begged her to stay, the call of the wanderer was far too great.

On the day of her departure, Lord Elrond bestowed upon her a fine Elvin blade. Light but powerful, it's gently curved blade made it a unique weapon.

"May this protect you in your journeys, and know you will always have a place here." Elrond said as she inspected the fine sword.

"My Lord, I can not accept this. You have shown me far too much hospitality already, for which I can never repay you. To add this to the services you have already done me is more than anything I can accept."

"You can accept it and you will." Elrond said walking away from her, a hidden smile curling his lips. "If it soothes your conscience any, consider it not as a gift but a binding contract."

"A contract for what?" Elrond turned slowly to face her when he reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to his rooms.

"Should we ever be in need, should the city ever need to be defended, you will come to our aid. Consider that the way you will be able to repay us."

"That I shall." Intara said, as she bowed low to the elf lord. "I will bind myself to your family and the city of Rivendell. Should the need ever arise, I will return here as swiftly as I am able."

Intara made the rest of her goodbye's and mounted the slim legged horse she'd been given to replace her now lost mare. She disappeared across the river and into the fragrant lowlands in search of a ranger outpost.

* * *

Years passed by and then centuries. Intara had nearly disappeared from memory in Rivendell. Armand, who had viewed the sea in her subconscious mind, had never been able to shake the call of the sea and had gone to the Western lands shortly after Intara had left the city.

One year, when Arwen was about to come of age, a package was brought to her.

"_Mani naa ta_?" She asked the messenger. The elf that had brought the package was from her Grandmother's realm in Lorien. He stood by and said nothing. Arwen tore into the package hoping it was a birthday present from her grandmother.

Arwen gasped when she opened it and revealed the blade Intara had been given upon her departure from the city.

"Ada…." Arwen looked to her father as she fingered the fine blade. Elrond picked up the note that lay in the bottom of the wrappings and skins that had been wound protectively around the sword.

_Dear Arwen, _

_My letter writing skills are not the best, so I will keep this brief. As you come of age I want you to remember all we talked about so many years ago beside the River. Women can do all a man can. I know you have a spirit and a spark for life. As I can foresee no children in my own future, I give this sword to you. A ranger has little use for such a fine thing; but an elvin warrior princess? That is an altogether different thing. Tell your father that the contract is still binding. I shall never forget your family's kindness._

_Intara_

"How did you come to be in possession of this blade?" Elrond asked the Lothlorien messenger.

"A woman, injured, wandered into the woods. Galadriel had her brought into the city. She stayed on, but when she found out that an envoy was coming to Rivendell she asked that we bare this with us and present it to the Princess."

"I must go to her father, please?" Arwen begged as she grasped her father's sleeve.

"Your grandmother has requested your presence in the Golden Wood anyway, I don't see why you can not go." Arwen dashed out of the room and prepared to leave Rivendell in the hopes of seeing her lost friend again.

But when Arwen arrived at the home of her Grandmother, she did not find Intara there. Intara had left the Golden Wood shortly after the envoy to Rivendell had, and no one would talk to Arwen about the reason for Intara's hasty departure from the woods of the Lady Galadriel.

* * *

After that, Intara was seen infrequently, and then only from great distances as elves traveled to the Gray Havens. The letters they sent back to Elrond were vague and inconclusive, but all insisted it was the wandering ranger that they had seen.

"_She sat above the road on a dark horse, her face obscured by her hood. But there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Intara watches over us on our pilgrimages to the sea."

* * *

_

And then one day, Intara returned to Imladris. A guard of elves patrolling the woods for orcs and trolls found her riding towards the city. She held her right arm close to her body and reeked of goblin. The elves were shocked to see that she'd not aged a day since the last time she had been a guest of the city.

She was brought back immediately and before she allowed herself to be taken to the healing halls or to the bathing area, she demanded to see Elrond.

"It's the Nine. They're after the Ring of Power. Apparently they think some Halfling has it, though how one of them might have managed to come by such a thing is beyond me."

"How were you hurt?" Elrond asked. He already knew about the Nazgul…he'd heard about it from Gandalf, though where he'd disappeared to now was beyond his sight.

"I was attacked by orcs." Intara's face reddened. "You'd think after so many years traveling I'd be able to smell one of their ambushes by now. But they caught me unawares…they were scouting ahead of the wraiths."

"You did well coming here." Elrond said as he clasped her good shoulder. "It is good to see you again after so many years."

"I could not leave the city unawares with those Goblins running amok."

"Go have your shoulder set, and for the Valar's sake take a bath…I'm sure they can smell you all over the city."

* * *

Once she had seen to her shoulder and taken a bath, she was given clean clothes and brought to Elrond's study once more.

"You must go to Bree and help the hobbits to get here." Elrond said as he poured over another scroll. "Another Ranger is already there, someone I think you'll know."

"I'd rather work alone."

"So would he. What your people have against working in a group, I'll never understand. Rangers are particularly too stubborn." Intara grinned slightly. It was the closest thing she'd ever heard to annoyance come out of the composed elf.

* * *

Intara crouched outside the walled city and waited for nightfall. Leaving her horse in the woods she moved across the shadowed fields and made a running leap at the high walls, only barely managing to grasp the top of it.

"I'm getting entirely too old for this." She muttered as she struggled to get over the wall. She finally dropped down to the other side and rubbed at her still sore shoulder. It didn't take much anymore to dislocate it. She'd had to reset it several times herself in the deep woods. Even sleeping in the wrong position popped the pesky joint out of its socket.

She moved from shadow to shadow. The few people who did see her in the dark places of the road stayed clear of her. Town folk were always leery of Rangers, which was exactly the way Intara liked it.

"_Now, if I were that doddering old Istari, where would I send a Hobbit?"_

Intara looked at the signs swinging from the pubs and finally saw the sign of the Prancing Pony illuminated in the dreary light. A light rain had been falling all night and the roads were slick and foul smelling, yet somehow the Pony always managed to look clean and hospitable.

"Comfort indeed." Intara slipped inside the ale house quietly and found herself an inconspicuous place that afforded her a view of the entire room. Most of the people in the pub were travelers; farmers headed to market, traders, magicians. Some were locals, knowing they could pick up the best bits of gossip from the loose tongued travelers. In the far corner of the tap room she saw a man sitting in the deep shadows, his presence betrayed by a faint orange glow from his pipe. She scanned on looking for Gandalf and wondering who the other Ranger might be, hoping against hope it wasn't the man in the corner.

She'd been standing in the pub for quite some time when four hobbits burst in to the room. She saw the man in the corner watch them come in and speak to the bar keep. Then they took seats at a table beside the fire. It didn't take long for the four to find trouble when they started to purchase whole pints.

"A quartet of drunk hobbits, perfect!" Intara muttered.

* * *

Frodo stopped the barkeep as he passed by, his hands full of tankards.

"Who is that man, in the corner?" The barkeep followed Frodo's gave until it fell on the dark man who still sat smoking his pipe. His silver eyes illuminated when he drew on it.

"That there is one of them Rangers, round here, we call him Strider." The barkeep said in a low voice.

"And that one, in the shadow….are they a Ranger as well?"

"I'm not sure who you're speaking of Master Underhill." The man quickly moved away, an unnerved look on his face. Something dark must assuredly be going on if _two _rangers were frequenting his pub. Rangers only brought trouble with them.

* * *

Intara watched as one of the hobbits began to run his mouth loudly at the bar while picking up a pint. He rambled incessantly about his relation to a Frodo Baggins. Frodo stood from the table and rushed to Pippin's side, tripped and then disappeared momentarily. She tensed, as did the smoking man in the corner.

Once Frodo reappeared, Strider moved across the room, snatched Frodo up from the floor and made for the stairs. The other three hobbits were hot on his trail, Intara taking up the rear.

"I'll have you, Longshanks!" The fat one yelled as he burst through the door brandishing a cooking pot. Intara came in behind them and closed the door while removing her hood. The four hobbits smelled of fear as they turned back to back, the better to protect themselves from any angle of attack.

"Strider." She said by way of greeting as she leaned casually against the door.

"Shadow." The man grinned crookedly as they had the hobbits sandwiched between them. She took note of the way his hand had gone instinctively to the hilt of the broadsword on his hip, it danced there for a moment and then he moved about the room extinguishing candles.

"Who are you?" The hobbits stared wide eyed at this woman who had only just now made her presence known. The tap room had been crowded, but they hadn't seen her at all.

"A friend, that's all you need know for now."

"How did you find yourself here?" Strider asked as he looked out the window. Intara doused the remaining candles and locked the door.

"Elrond sent me. Said I'd meet you here---not in so many words of course…."

"Of course."

Strider told the Hobbits of the wraiths that were following them while Intara went to the hobbit's room to prepare it for the evening. They wanted it to look as if the Halflings were lodging there. She came back to Strider's room rubbing the back of her head.

"Problems?"

"Hobbit room---low beam. I'd rather not talk about it." Strider cracked another smile. "And don't laugh."

"Alright."

* * *

It was late in the evening when the wraiths finally showed up. Frodo was alert and sat at the edge of the bed, watching the two humans. Strider was at the window, Intara near the door, when the high pitched scream of the wraiths pierced the night air and woke the three sleeping hobbits.

"Are you afraid?" Strider asked into the darkness.

"Are you?" Intara's smooth voice rippled back through the shadow. They did not need to say anything more.

Before Dawn the next morning, Intara, Strider, and the Hobbits left Bree and made for the city of Rivendell.

"Shadow?" Intara moved forward and walked beside Strider. They'd been moving the better part of the day. "I need you to scout ahead." His eyes never met hers as they walked, but scanned the dark forest around them, waiting for a shadow to jump out at them. "We'll stop at Weathertop tonight."

"You want me to find the wraiths." It was not a question, but a fact.

"Aye." He finally brought his gray eyes to her dark ones. "If we know where they are, we can be ready for them."

Intara moved away and mounted her horse swiftly, drifting off the road and into the black forests in search of the Ring Wraiths.

* * *

_Mankoi_?----- Why?

_Mani naa ta?----_ What is it?

_Ada_----- Father


	3. On Wraiths and Rings

Whether she wanted to or not, Intara found the wraiths.

She swore silently as she worked her horse into a lather in order to stay away from two of the wraiths on her trail. The two turned to three and then four. She had half the wraiths chasing her. Somehow, while keeping the wraiths following her, advancing, and then lying in wait, she had managed to send a message to Rivendell asking for reinforcements and telling them of the predicament she and Strider found themselves in.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Intara, Arwen intercepted the message. She raced from her father's house to the stables and went out in search of the Hobbits and the other Ranger, knowing full well that Intara would never forgive her for trying to help. Intara was far too independent to allow for that.

* * *

When Arwen found Strider and the hobbits, the situation was grim. Frodo was slipping into darkness, injured by a morgal blade. No one knew where Intara was, and the remaining wraiths were baring down on them.

Arwen filled a stressed Strider in on what had happened. "Five wraiths are behind you…where the other four are, I know not." Strider met Arwen's eyes as he lifted Frodo into the saddle of her big white horse. "I fear for Intara as well…she must be diverting them."

"Get him to your father. We have to save him." Strider said, re-directing the conversation to the problem at hand. "Intara can care for herself."

Arwen rode away with Frodo with all haste for the city, leaving Strider behind to worry about two of the most important women in his life.

* * *

Intara felt the arrow dig painfully into her shoulder and quickly diverted the path of her horse. The wraiths who had been pursuing her had been replaced by orcs. Now all Intara cared about was finding the four wraiths and keeping them distracted. She crested a large hill and looked down to see all nine wraiths racing over the open plain in hot pursuit of a rider in silver, long dark hair flowing behind them.

"NO!" Intara pounded her fisted hand into her thigh and watched as the wraiths started to close in on the figure, sure that it was Arwen "Damn that girl! Why did she not send Glorfindel?"

Intara kicked her horse fiercely and the creature reared before diving down the slope and out across the plain in an attempt to catch the other ten riders. She nearly came un-horsed when the arrow in her back was hit by a tree branch. She tried to reach around but couldn't get a firm grasp on the shaft of the arrow. Finding a forked tree trunk, she grasped the shaft as best she could, wedged the fletchings into the fork and forcefully wrenched her shoulder causing the shaft to break.

"Damn if it hasn't hit bone…" She said as she picked herself up off the ground. There was no time to lie about and fight the pain of it...she had to get to Arwen.

* * *

Intara remembered little of the chase. She didn't know where she was or how she'd managed to get there. What she did know was that she was cold, wet and in pain. She could see little except that it was nearing dawn, the sky in the east was colored a pale lavender and the air was still and heavy with the early morning dew. The sound of her horse chomping on grasses nearby overshadowed the sound of birds in singing softly in the canopy. She tried to orient herself to what was around her but only got so far as to realize she was slumped on the ground, her right arm pinned behind and beneath her.

"Dislocated…again." She muttered. "That's the second time in a week…." She could not move and dared not do so without assistance. The sun was just beginning to crest the sky as a bright orange disc when a disturbing thought hit her.

_I was chasing them in the afternoon…if it's sunrise now, I've been out here all night, and there's no knowing where Arwen might be._

Now she was desperate to move, and didn't care how much pain she inflicted on herself as long as she was able to get up. Her horse lifted its head form the grasses it was chomping on and looked back over its shoulder. Its ears twisted about and Intara too heard the sound of hooves moving gently over the packed ground. The horse whinnied at the new comer.

"You had better hope they're friendly, or I'll turn you in to stew." She muttered, still trying to push herself up, in spite of her incapacitated abilities.

"Who's there?" The voice was male, but soft—she hoped it was an elf and not a man. An elf could at least take her in to Rivendell and she could get either more help for Arwen or berate the girl herself for doing something so foolish. "Is someone out there?"

"Aye!" Intara blurted out, hoping for the best. "Here!"

Intara watched as the figure approached in the dawn light, bow to the front and hand hovering over a full quiver. She watched as the elf approached in the morning light, almost seeming to cast a glow off of him. He placed the bow beside her as he knelt down.

* * *

The woman was clearly incapable of harming him in her present condition. He looked into her dark eyes with his own blue ones. At first she thought she must be dreaming, and that she could see through his head, his eyes were such a dark shade of blue. Then she realized she was worse off than she originally thought.

"I need help." Intara blurted out, focusing on him as best she could. "I can't sit up…my shoulder is dislocated."

"Here," She felt his gentle hands upon her shoulder as he helped her rise from her prone position. "What happened?"

"I don't know, I don't really have time to explain." Intara said trying to catch her breath. Even with assistance, the exertion of trying sit up had drained her. "One moment I was riding hell bent for leather, and the next I was here."

"Well then, it would seem you…." Intara grasped the elf's cloak with her good hand and pulled him down to her level with a surprising amount of strength.

"I have to get to Rivendell…with all haste." She said through gritted teeth.

"I will oblige you…it is just beyond yonder cliff." He said pointing at the bluffs that were just becoming visible in the dawn light. He helped her to her feet and half carried her to her horse. They rode side by side down the twisting trail before finally coming to the river's edge. Intara suddenly remembered a wall of water rushing through the valley, and her trying to beat it and get to the other side.

"I'll box that girl's pointed ears…."

"Pardon me?"

"Nothing." Intara grew dizzy during the ascent and slumped forward. When she again pulled herself up she could see the city below her, glowing in the early morning light.

"Thank the Valar…"

"How fare you?" Her riding companion asked.

"As well as can be expected." Intara tried to sit taller in the saddle, but couldn't for the pain tearing through her body. Her cloak was gone and she shivered involuntarily as the sun tried to dry her heavy clothes.

"Come, we must get to the healing halls…." The blonde elf watched as sweat beaded upon her brow. "You are unwell."

"The healing halls…the bane of my existence."

"Excuse me?" The elf's brow furrowed deeply a he tried to understand this strange woman he had found.

"Nothing…" Intara again slumped forward in the saddle and groaned. "What's you name?"

"I am Legolas Greenleaf, of Mirkwood." Intara turned her head and stared at the elf beside her.

Yes, now that the sunlight was better she could see the regal baring with which this elf carried himself. She had never met Thranduil, but she'd met a few Mirkwood elves while in Lothlorien, and he certainly bore the color of a Mirkwood Archer.

"Who are you? How is it you come to be so familiar with the city?"

"I am Intara…of the Dunedain. Most call me Shadow."

"You?" Legolas looked shocked. He'd heard legends of a woman named Intara who guarded the Rivendell pilgrimages to the sea. He hadn't thought she mightbe real. "You can not be…"Legolas never got to finish his sentence before she started to fall from her saddle. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his own horse. He rode quickly into the city and right up to the healing halls, delivering his charge into the hands of the Rivendell elves.

* * *

Intara roused slowly and looked up at the ginger bread details of the ceiling. Her arm was so heavily bandaged she could not move it. She rose from the bed slowly and with great difficulty.

"You just can't rest, can you?"

"When I try, you send me seers to bring me back." Intara snapped as Elrond stood in the doorway with a bowl of what she assumed was some sort of poultice. He smiled as he watched her grouchy expression deepen. "Or on some fool's errand!"

"Do you know who you saved on that fool's errand?"

"Some hobbits who couldn't manage to stay out of trouble for five minutes." Her jerkin was thrown over a chair next to the bed and she fingered the hole in the back of it where the arrow had pierced the leather. Someone had tried to patch it. She struggled to get it over her bad arm, but managed, Elrond staring her down the whole time.

"One of those hobbit's was carrying the Ring of Power." Intara's head snapped up and she stared at Elrond, her fingers hovering over the buckles on her tunic. "Aye, the one they call Frodo."

"Then the rumors were true." Intara whispered as Elrond nodded.

"Gandalf was supposed to meet them in Bree, but he was detained.""

"Detained?" Intara knew Gandalf. It took a force of nature to detain him, and even then he was as stubborn as she and would power through it.

"Isengard and Saruman have fallen to the darker powers."

"What will you do?" Intara sat back against the headboard as Elrond took up the chair and set the bowl down.

"I have asked a council to convene to discuss just that. The ring can not stay here. But you must rest, Intara." He leveled a stern and fatherly gaze at her. "You must regain your strength." Elrond rose and made for the door.

"Arwen…is she…?"

"She's fine, why do you ask?"

"I was behind her, I saw the Nazgul chasing her…."

"She is well. Her fast actions saved Frodo at the Ford." Elrond saw the grimace cross her face. "Shall I send her to you?"

"No." Intara shook her head. "Not yet, thank you."

"Very well." Elrond nodded and moved down the hall.

* * *

Intara took her time getting out of bed but was wandering the halls later that day. She managed to avoid everyone until she came to a secluded courtyard where Elrond's council sat. From her elevated position on the walkway, she could see the assorted groups of men, dwarves and elves sitting in a circle around a stone pillar. She could see the fat hobbit hiding behind a bush trying to eavesdrop on the 'secret' council. She smirked, for a hobbit, he was certainly an adventurous sort. Intara brought her attention back to the council as a red headed dwarf suddenly rose and swung his axe down upon the stone pedestal in the center of the circle. Her vision was bathed in fire for a brief instant and she saw herself standing in a world full of destruction and peril. When everything cleared, and argument had ensued between the dwarves and the elves, Strider was trying to maintain the peace and Gandalf's voice boomed out across the courtyard, clear even to her ears.

She had no part in this. She wanted no part in this.


	4. Warnings

"Intara! I have not laid eyes on you in many years!"

"Mithrandir, I wish I could say the same." Intara poured herself a goblet of strong wine and drank it quickly, happy to see the puzzled look on the old wizard's face. "I saw you traveling with a wagon going on two months ago…that weed you smoke is awful."

"Psh, you just don't have an appreciation for the finer things in life." The old man said with a twinkle in his eye. He would always smoke the weed the hobbits did and always would have problems convincing the rest of Middle Earth that there was nothing wrong with the foul smelling stuff.

Intara looked across the table at Strider. He was dressed in clothes slightly better than those he usually wore. She knew he kept this garb at Rivendell for special occasions, such as dinners and meetings. She kept no such items at Rivendell and as such wore the same clothes she had when she'd been brought in to the city unconscious. Aragorn focused his gray eyes on her and nodded, almost imperceptibly. It was all the recognition she would receive throughout the meal.

* * *

Intara left the hall and wandered into the gardens afterwards, moving silently amongst the shadows. Anywhere else in Middle Earth and she would have been suspected of being a wraith. Her build was so slim and she moved so lightly that she seemed almost as a passing breeze. Her dark clothes allowed her to all but disappear into the shadows, which was precisely how she liked it.

She stopped when she saw Aragorn and Arwen standing on a bridge hand clasped in the garden below her. Bits of elvish floated on the breeze to her ears and she groaned when she realized they were words of love.

"That girl is going to get herself into a world of trouble." She muttered before moving away, back into the darkness.

* * *

"Intara?" She looked up from her few belongings and saw Arwen standing in the doorway. It had been two weeks since the fight at the Ford and Intara had not really spoken to the girl except at meals and an occasional greeting in passing. It wasn't in spite or out of anger, but because she didn't wish to bring the matter up around others. And Arwen was _always _surrounded by others. Arwen entered the room and stood at the foot of Intara's bed. "Father said you wished to see me."

"Aye…It was your little trick at the river what cost me the use of my arm." Intara said trying to fold a shirt one handed as her other was still in a sling. She was under strict orders not to use it for a few more days. She grimaced as the shirt slipped apart and she had to start again.

"I am sorry, but Frodo was so injured, and the wraiths so close…" Arwen moved quickly around the bed and tried to make eye contact with the older woman. She looked at her friend and sighed. By some trick of nature Intara looked no older than Arwen, they could have been sisters. Arwen had known Intara a long time and did not want the woman to hold a grudge against her, it would have been the worst thing she could have imagined. Intara saw the fear in the elleth's eyes and held up her good hand to silence her.

"You did well. I am not angry--just…irritable."

"When are you ever not?" Arwen asked grinning as she sat on the edge of the bed. She never should have feared angering Intara. She was a cold hearted woman, but not one who was quick to hold grudges. She'd forgotten that.

"Here now…" Intara gave up folding the shirt and stuffed it forcefully into her bag. "That's a vile thing to say to a person who's injured." Arwen laughed and reached across and took the shirt from the bag, folded it and replaced it. There were others in the bag and she carefully took the liberty of removing them and folding them properly. Intara watched her do this in silence for some time before she broke it. "I saw you yester eve." Arwen's gaze snapped up to Intara's stern dark look. Intara had seen the young elf and Aragorn share a kiss while she'd been relaxing in the garden. She'd had the good sense not to break the moment between the two, but felt that something needed to be said now. "Be careful…Strider is a ranger before all else. I would hate to see any ill befall you because of him."

"Intara I…"

"_Uuma_." Intara said holding up her hand again to silence the elf. "Don't say a word, because I know what you will say already. Don't think me naïve, Arwen. I'm not telling you not to love him, just asking that you not give your heart to him completely. You are more like family to me than he is." With that, Intara picked up her saddle bag and left Arwen sitting on her bed.

"You feel as I do, though your loyalties surprise me." Intara stopped in a sunny spot on the walkway and let the sun bake into her skin.

"Someone has to look out for her."

"Someone has to look out for Aragorn as well." Elrond said stepping in to the same pool of sunlight. Intara bowed her head, her shoulders slumped unevenly because of the sling.

"Another Fool's errand?"

"Consider it more a quest."

"Never a dull moment…." Intara muttered before turning to face the dark haired elf. She shifted the saddlebags and stared him in the eye. "_Lira ron aulta_?"

"They departed early this morning."

"And they're bound for?"

"Mordor." Intara flinched. "Any way they can."

"Well, I'll need provisions…"

"The healers are not going to let you leave until you have the ability to use your arm again." He saw her jaw tighten. She was not used to being told what to do. "I won't permit you to leave. You can catch up with them by the end of the week." Intara stared stonily at the Elf lord. "Consider it your service to the city."

"_Amin naa tualle._" She bowed to the stately elf, hand clasped over her heart. She would do as he asked, but she did not have to like it.

* * *

Intara left at week's end and followed behind the group. Sometimes she would over take the camps they had made, sometimes she would not arrive at one at all. Eventually she came to the place where they had made camp before their ascent up Caradhras. She held her horse's reins and looked up at the peaks that towered above her. The summit was wreathed in thick clouds that popped with un-seasonal lightning flashes.

"Well, I doubt they'll be getting over that road." Intara said as she patted her horse's neck. "We'll catch them on the way down, what do you think of that?" The horse nodded its head. "Is that a good idea? I thought so…"

While she waited for them to come back down she gathered wood and brought down several rabbits for the evening meal. She knew they'd all be hungry, especially if the hobbits' eating habits had not changed since Rivendell. She had a small fire going and the rabbits roasting over the hot coals when she heard a pot bang loudly in the distance. She smiled…_that was Sam_.

She moved into the darkness and stood near the path where she knew the fellowship would be coming into view at any moment.

"You're late." Intara crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Legolas drew his bow and the another man turned, blade drawn. "I've caught a brace or two of Rabbits, they're roasting nicely at the camp if you're hungry."

"What are you doing here, Intara?" Aragorn asked, ignoring her invitation into the camp.

"Elrond sent me." She said as she turned back to the camp. "Another Fool's Errand. If you're not interested in following me, I'll have myself a nice supper by myself."

"We're coming." Pippin rushed after her followed by Merry and then Sam. She heard the others come through the bushes at a much more cautious pace.

"If this is your idea of a Fool's errand, then why are you here?" Gimli asked gruffly as he sat heavily beside the small fire. Intara crouched opposite of him and added more wood. She'd built the fire against the rocks so that it was shielded from prying eyes, and so that the rocks would retain some of the heat after they had put it out.

"I am here because I am bound to Rivendell, and so sayeth the lord of the city, there shall I go." Gimli turned away when her dark eyes rested on him too long. They were unnaturally old to reside in a face so young.

"Intara," Aragorn said calling her attention back to him. "Why did Elrond send you?"

"Why does he ever send me?" Intara snapped at him. "To cover your back." She looked to where the Hobbits stood tired and shivering in the twilight. "Come now…get close to the fire, the meat will be cooked shortly."

She finished cooking and dolled out portions to each of the members. Gandalf's face was hard to read and Intara knew the old man was troubled deeply.

"What is it Mithrandir?" She asked, using his elven name.

"Nothing."

"You're a troubled old man. The old know that look when they see it on another."

"I take offense to you even TRYING to compare your age to mine." Gandalf's eyes flashed to hers momentarily and she knew she'd succeeded in breaking his foul mood. She smiled slightly at her triumph causing Gandalf to scowl, acquiescing to her victory. "It is the road we take."

"You're taking the darker way, I trust."

"Through Moria, yes." Gimli piped up. "My uncle Balin will welcome us heartily." Intara watched as the dwarf devoured his portion of rabbit, bits of meat clinging to his beard and mustache. "It will be an honor to show the true extent of dwarfish craftsmanship." He let out a crude belch.

"Right." Intara turned back to Gandalf who laughed softly at her mild rebuke of the dwarf. "Get some rest, old man….I will take the first watch, you've all had a trying day."

* * *

The next morning the band of ten moved into the deep chasms and towards the entrance of the Moria Mines. Intara moved ahead through the murky swamps to scout and to stay away from the rest.

Just before their noon rest, Intara found herself walking near the other man in the fellowship.

"Your name is Intara, is it not?" He asked.

"It is." Intara kept her eyes ahead on the path. She did not trust this man; this captain of Gondor. "What of it?"

"I am Boromir; son of the Steward of Gondor."

"That's nice." She said in an offhanded manner, as if she weren't truly listening to him.

"How is it that you, a woman, found us?"

"That matters little." Intara moved ahead of him. "Accept that a blind man could follow the tracks of nine men in the dark. It does not take skill." She did not look back to see his eyes darken at the offense she'd just dealt him.

She spent the afternoon wading through brackish water and kept her distance from the Captain. She did not like him, or the way he looked at Frodo at night when he thought no one was looking.

* * *

Uuma--- Don't

Lira ron aulta--- When did they leave?

Amin naa tualle—I am your servant.


	5. Bad Luck

It took them two full days of travel before they reached the great stone door at Moria. When Gandalf couldn't open the door immediately, Intara doubled back and checked their trail to be sure they were not being followed.

She felt uneasy backed against the mine entrance with the lake preventing an easy escape or defense. The dark woods were bathed in deep shadow; a perfect cover for anyone following them. All was silent. It was a stifling, claustrophobic feeling that made her skin crawl and sent an involuntary shiver down her spine. Intara took her time walking back, picking her way across the shifty rocks at the lake's edge.

The moon peaked from the clouds, a silver disc against the violet night sky, bathing the fellowship in cool silver blue light. She watched as Aragorn prepared to release the horses and talked with Sam. Gimli was boasting loudly of the reception they would receive once inside, and Legolas was doing his best to ignore him. Boromir was digging for something in one of the packs and Gandalf and Frodo sat staring at the door. The other Hobbits were skipping rocks across the black, mirror like surface of the lake. Intara observed their actions from the shadows.

"I wouldn't do that were I you." Aragorn said as he caught the wrist of Merry as he was preparing to throw a rock. "Where is Intara? She should be back by now."

"I am back." Intara took satisfaction in the way everyone jumped as she stepped from beneath the leafy oak beside the rock face. "I have been for some time."

"Shadow always was an appropriate moniker for you." Gandalf said laughing. Frodo sat straighter and stared at the elvish runes on the door.

"It's a riddle. Gandalf, what's the elvish word for friend?"

"Mellon." Gandalf said slowly. The door parted and everyone stood back as dust blew out of the infrequently used cracks.

"Well then…that was easy enough." Pippin declared. Gandalf was first to move into the darkness, setting a crystal in his staff he mumbled a few choice words and cast a sterile white light across the ancient walls.

"…They call it a mine. A MINE!!!" Gimli's voice echoed out of the cave as Intara picked up her pack. The Hobbits were still outside and as Intara stood up, she saw the lake ripple.

"I thought Strider told you not to do that." Intara said glaring at Pippin.

"Do what?" He was distracted as Gandalf called for him to follow inside Moria. Intara rolled her eyes and followed.

"It isn't a mine…it's a tomb!" Boromir said. From the place she stood in the door, she could see the mummified corpses of several hundred dwarves. Gimli ran from corpse to corpse crying out in agony at seeing his brethren in such a state.

"We make for the gap of Rohan, we should never have come here!" Boromir said as he back stepped to get away from the overwhelming sight of death.

Something slick whipped past Intara and grasped Frodo's ankle. He was pulled from his feet and dragged past her. She latched on to his outstretched hand and pulled a dagger from her boot with her free hand. She hacked at the fleshy tentacle holding Frodo trying to free him. The creature pulled harder and Frodo was pulled from her grasp as several more tentacles burst from the once smooth lake surface.

"Frodo!" Intara, Boromir and Aragorn waded into the water and fought the creature, waiting for Frodo to come within reach. The frightened hobbit screamed as he was swung about above the lake's surface. Intara heard the swift and soft 'whoosh' of an arrow fly past her cheek and looked back to see Legolas in the cave entrance with his bow at the ready.

"Arrows are like gnats to this beast…he should save them for another enemy." She muttered to no one in particular. Aragorn and Boromir managed to wrestle Frodo away from the creature and ran for the shore.

"Intara, move!" Intara didn't need to be told twice and ran behind the others. She was nearly to shore when she felt a tentacle wrap around her ankle.

"No!" Aragorn stopped and turned when he heard her shout and watched as she was pulled beneath the lake's surface.

"Intara!" She thrashed as she struggled to get back to the surface and keep a hold on her sword. Aragorn stood on the shore and watched helplessly as Intara struggled with the monster. He advanced towards the lake edge again, ready for another rescue effort, when Legolas called out to him.

"Aragorn!" The monster had reached out and had pulled away part of the supports for the door. The wall of the mountain was starting to crack and crumble with a horrendous shuddering. Aragorn didn't know which way to turn.

"Go you fool!" Intara shouted as she was dropped to the water's surface, the tentacle that had held her floating harmlessly in the choppy water. She hobbled towards the shore and salvation "Hurry!"

Aragorn turned his back on her and raced into the mine just as the entire mountain side came down behind him. Boromir and Legolas held him back as he lunged for the pile of debris.

"Even if she made it to the door, laddy, she'd not have lived through all of that." Gimli said softly.

"She never made it to the door." Legolas said, looking at the mass of rubble. "She was still by the lake when the rocks fell."

"We must endeavor on." Gandalf said leading the way deeper into the mine. "Come along. Intara must fend for herself now."

* * *

Intara crawled out of the water to the cliff wall and out of reach of the monster. It had grabbed her again as she'd reached the shore and she had struggled with it for the better part of twenty minutes before it had finally had enough of her. She lay beside the cliff and breathed heavily trying to regain her strength. She was sure that her leg was broken…if not broken then she'd certainly torn every ligament and muscle from her hip down to her big toe. She stretched, in spite of the pain it caused her, and latched on to a nearby branch. She stripped the smaller twigs from it and lashed it to her leg in a crude splint. She had to use the wall to pull herself to her feet. Once Intara caught her breath, she hopped slowly towards another branch and fashioned a crutch.

"Where's that damn horse." Intara swore. She made her way around the lake and back to the path. Following the tracks of the horses she had to leave the trail and wade through the foul smelling water in search of one of the beasts. She hobbled for some time before she found her horse grazing nearby, as if nothing had occurred.

"Come here you great beast, I'll not be able to make it to you. I'm far too tired to play games." The brown horse snorted indignantly, but did as it was asked. It turned its head to watch as its master tried to pull herself into the saddle. No matter what she did, there was no way she was going to be able to ride with her leg splinted. She rid herself of the splint and finally managed to get on her horse. She turned it slowly and let it pick its way back out of the valley as she fell asleep.

When she woke up she shivered. She hadn't changed out of her wet clothes and a slight breeze was blowing at her back. She didn't have much of an option but to keep going forward. She could stop when she was out of this accursed valley.

Horse and rider plodded on through the night and the next day, she found herself at the mouth of the valley. Her horse bent it's head to chomp at the greener grasses but she would not let it.

"Come on now, head up." Intara tugged at the reins and brought the horse's head up. "We go over the mountain. The evil forces that prevented Gandalf and the others from going over will not be paying attention to us." The horse moved slowly in the direction she indicated, unhappy that it's snack had been disrupted.

Intara didn't remember passing out again, but she suddenly woke up colder than she had been before.

"How long was I out?" She wondered aloud. She was on Caradras. Damn if her horse hadn't gotten her up the mountain. Snow fell heavily and was sticking in her dark hair and dappling her clothes.

"Ni ro lim." She whispered to her horse. It did not need to be told again and moved faster up the trail.

* * *

The mountain shuddered beneath them. It was their second day on the mountain and Intara and her horse were finally headed down the steep peak. The snow lay heavily all around them as they plodded slowly through the drifts. She had nearly fallen off her horse twice and had lashed herself to the saddle sometime yesterday. She was glad she had, for now her fingers were fisted around the worn leather reins and were a painful red color. She was so cold that she hadn't stopped at all in the three and a half days since the fight at the lake.

It took a moment for Intara to collect her bearings and focus on what was happening. The mountain shuddered a second time and the snow began to shift beneath the hooves of the horse.

"Go! Go! Go!" Intara shouted. She was unable to spur her horse to go any faster, but she still had voice. The horse, sensing that something bad was about to happen burst forward and tried to keep ahead of the avalanche, but found it a losing battle. Horse and rider were enveloped in a wave of snow and boulders.

* * *

Intara looked up into the afternoon sky and cursed as her head bounced off a rock. Her left foot, already pulled and injured from the fight with the lake monster, was stuck in the stirrup of her weary horse. The poor creature stumbled and limped across the rocky plain, just trying to move onward and get help.

"_Tampa._" She whispered. It took her some moments to find enough voice to gt the horse to stop so she could extricate herself from the stirrup. She lay on her back for some time, willing the pain to leave her. The sun was starting to set, and in spite of the warmth emanating from the rocks, she knew that the night would be chill. That, and if her gut were correct, she was on the Lorien side of Moria. If that were true, the orcs would be out to claim the land with the darkening of the sky.

She struggled up onto the horse's back and urged it onward. Her suspicions were correct when a few hours later she heard the sound of an orc horn echo across the land.

"Faster, we must go faster." She urged as she nudged the horse in the ribs. When she looked up, she could see the fringe of the woods of Lothlorien and, as if the horse understood what the trees meant, moved faster to get into the protective reach of the canopy.

"_How I wish there was somewhere else to go."_ Intara thought. _"But if I know Gandalf, he'll run to that witch in her great trees for protection from the orcs and whatever else he's awakened down there._"

They were less than one hundred feet inside the ethereal woods when she was pulled violently from the saddle and found herself on the wrong end of an arrow.

"Shadow?" She tried to focus on the voice as it floated above her. "You look awful…_mani marte_?"

"Rumil….there are orcs…"

"_Dina_, _amin sinta._." He said shortly. He picked her battered body up from where he'd shoved her and moved through the trees. "We'll get you up into a flet tonight and then take you into the city with the dawn. There's no time to take you now."

"I can't climb." She whispered as her head sagged, unable to hold it up any longer. "I haven't slept much in three days."

"Then I shall carry you. Wrap your arms about my neck…hold tight now." He wrapped a belt around her waist and secured her to him before ascending the thin rope ladder. It took everything in her to hold on as the elf climbed up into the talan and lay her down against the huge mallorn trunk. "Your cousin is about a day or so ahead of you---he and the others should be at the city by now."

"Aragorn is alive? He's here?" She struggled to lift her head and focus on what was going on around her.

"Aye. You knew of his coming?" She nodded slowly as he raised a water skin to her lips and let her drink.

"I was with him at Moria…the entrance caved before I got in. I had to come over Caradras…there was an avalanche…."

"_Dina_!" An archer hissed. Intara could clearly hear the sound of orcs moving below them, accompanied by the deadly sound of arrows. A few pained howls indicated that they'd reached their targets.

Intara shivered as the night passed slowly. Rumil wrapped his cloak around her and touched her fevered brow.

"You are ill." He whispered. "You need to get to the Lady Galadriel."

"I'm sure she'll be just THRILLED to see me." Intara coughed. Even talking was an exhausting activity and left her short of breath.

"Of course!" Rumil said with a smile he didn't feel. "She is always happy to entertain a guest."

Rumil was worried for this woman. She'd spent time in the Golden Wood before. Time recuperating from injuries she'd sustained. The two were close friends and he did not want to see her come to any harm.

The dawn could not come quickly enough.

* * *

Mani marte---- What happened?

Dina--- Be silent

Amin Sinta--- I know.


	6. Lorien

_A/N: _I like reviews, really! Even the ones that say you aren't happy with the plot. I know at least one person is reading this, and for that reason, it will be finished, but I'd really like to hear more feedback!

* * *

The sun rose slowly in the east and painted the sky a soft pink. Rumil turned as the first rays stretched themselves through the canopy and lit the talan with a soft golden light. He was surprised to see just how bad off Intara was.

Her skin was a horrible ghostly pale color and her dark eyes were dull and ringed with red circles. A heavy layer of sweat coated her skin and gave it the illusion of wet dough.

"Intara…"

"Is it that bad?" She answered weakly, trying to crack a smile through pale lips. "You never use that name unless it's THAT bad."

"Oh no…_Vanimle sila tiri_." He knelt beside her and touched her face with his fingertips. "Never before had I seen you look more stunning than just now."

"That may work on an elleth, Rumil, but I'm much smarter than that." Intara coughed painfully and Rumil quickly got water for her.

"Very well, if you insist." He said with a grin. "But you'll be made well again soon enough, let's get you to the city."

"Rumil…"

"_Dina_…." Rumil said as he and another elf maneuvered her onto a stretcher. Her face contorted with the pain of it, but she would not cry out. Rumil's mouth turned up in a crooked, apologetic grin. She was much too stubborn to tell anyone how much pain she was in. The stretcher was lowered to the forest floor as soon as Intara was secured to it, then Rumil and another took up their positions. "We're for the city now; we'll be there in no time."

_That might be all the time I have..._Intara thought dully as she tried to focus on Rumil. He and the other elf jogged through the woods bearing the stretcher between them. She found it was a futile effort to try and retain consciousness and she slipped into the black once more, hoping that this time, she'd be permitted to stay there.

* * *

Intara woke to find herself staring up the height of a great mallorn tree. The silver of the moon cast an ethereal glow over the bark and a gentle breeze carried a soft song to Intara's ears. She tried to focus on the words, but found it impossible.

"You are awake….that is good." Intara turned her head to the voice, albeit far too quickly and felt a dizzying wave of nausea pass over her. She closed her eyes against it. "You shouldn't move over much." Intara snorted derisively. "No response?"

"Why should I respond when you are already in my head, Lady Galadriel?" Intara answered coldly.

"I suppose you are right," Galadriel said with a coy smile. "I suppose you are in a great deal of pain…"

"Pain is nothing…"

"Do not play the brave hero, Intara. And do not lie to me." Galadriel said fixing a stern eye on the injured woman lying in the bed. "I have sheltered you before…you must endeavor to be less reckless."

"Then you know this was not my doing." Intara shot back angrily. She tried to sit up but fell back to the bed. That little movement sent wave after wave of pain shuddering through her body and robbed her breath from her lungs.

Galadriel sighed.

"Here, drink this…I shall send Aragorn up to you shortly."

"No." Intara said after she had swallowed all of the bitter draught. "I don't want him to see me like this…not now."

"As you wish." Galadriel said with a bow. She watched from the doorway for a moment until she was sure Intara had drifted off into a warm, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Intara shut her eyes against the light and muttered a few choice curses in both elvish and common tongue. She wondered why she had roused out of the heavy sleep Galadriel had put her into. Then she heard the voice echo through her foggy mind once again.

"Intara?"

She groaned and covered here eyes. Where the night had been soft and bathed in cool silvers, the morning light was harsh and golden.

"_Kela_…" She said stretching, then quickly arrested the motion as it sent awful stabbing sensations rippling though her body. She groaned and tried not to move farther.

"Well, it's nice to see you as well." Aragorn said as he knelt beside her bed. She finally opened her eyes and focused on him. "How fare you?"

"Better when I was asleep," She answered, enjoying the sheepish look pass over his features. "awful to be perfectly honest with you. How are you, cousin?" She would milk this for all it was worth.

"I am well enough." Intara knew then that something was wrong. His eyes were too dull and he was trying too hard to make small talk. He looked thin, worn out, and tired.

"Do not lie to me, Aragorn. Tell me true; how many were lost in Moria?" She would not admit it, but she had grown fond of the four hobbits.

"Only one…"

"Frodo?"

"No….Mithrandir."

"No!" Intara tried to rise, but fell back weakly, Aragorn placed a gentle hand on her shoulder in an effort to calm her. "No—"

"Had I not seen him fall, I would not have believed it myself."

"What of the others?"

"They are well, all of them. Just heartbroken over the loss." He grasped her hand and squeezed it gently. "I am glad to see you alive though. I was worried when the entrance collapsed..."

Intara barked a short laugh but halted abruptly as the action stole her breath. She grasped her aching middle and sighed.

"Galadriel says your innards are bruised and your leg has several tears in the muscles and ligaments. You probably shouldn't over exert yourself."

"My leg isn't broken?" Intara asked, looking up at him.

"No."

"Good, then I'll be up and about in no time." She said. She had been most worried about her leg…the rest of her injuries she could travel with.

"You oughtn't to be alive at all." Aragorn whispered.

"You think I don't know that?" She hissed in return. "I've been waiting centuries for my existence to end." She lay weakly back and waited to catch her breath. "And yet I go on, because my task is not yet finished."

Aragorn did not wish to dwell on his cousin's unnaturally long life, or her desire for it to come to an end, and changed the subject.

"The rest of the fellowship and I will be leaving as soon as we are provisioned. You will remain here, under Galadriel's care until you are well again and can go your way."

"You don't have the authority to end my quest, Aragorn."

"And that is precisely why I did not tell you not to follow us." Aragorn's eyes smiled, even if it did not reach the rest of his face. Intara glared at him through narrowed eyes, he was too smart for his own good. He rose and left the room, passing by a broad shouldered, blonde elf. She and the elf stared at one another for some time before he finally entered the room.

"I won't ask how you feel---you only ever visit when you're feeling poorly." He said with a crooked grin.

"The lady will only welcome me when I'm feeling poorly." Intara answered.

"And no wonder! Your tongue holds much less venom when you're incapacitated." He said as he came to sit in the place Strider had just vacated, a huge grin lighting up his face. "You are much easier to deal with when you are unconscious."

"Did you come here to mock me, or for some other purpose? Galadriel will be quite angry if you all keep disrupting my recovery." Intara quipped.

"Intara…" The elf's eyes softened. "How are you, truly?"

"You said you wouldn't ask me that." It was Intara's turn to smile widely as she watched the elf grimace.

"You are an insufferable woman, did you know that?"

"I'd heard." She sighed and her smile faded as she looked into his kind eyes. "I am well enough, Haldir---sore, but well enough."

"I was shocked to find that you had been brought to the city. I had stumbled on Aragorn a few days before. He was already in quite the motley company."

"Trust me, I was just as surprised to find myself tasked with following them." Intara reached for the cup that sat on the far edge of the table beside her bed. Her face contorted with pain and determination. Haldir watched for a moment as she struggled to stretch her battered limbs to reach her target. He moved it until it was just within her grasp. He knew better than to give it to her outright; he'd have to go change his tunic if he had. She took a sip of water and then replaced the cup before continuing. "Elrond wanted me to make sure nothing happened to them, instead, I find myself relying on the healing powers of the elves again for the third time in as many weeks."

"I'll let you get some rest then." Haldir said as he rose. "I must help get the fellowship ready to depart and then go back to the fences." He bowed, but kept his eyes locked on hers. "I hope, you will not leave before I return. I did miss you, Intara."

Intara grinned crookedly. "I'm sure you did. I'll probably still be here when you return from the fences."

"_Tenna telwan san'."

* * *

_

Intara had been confined to bed for almost a week before the Fellowship was prepared to depart. She stretched herself up to peek over the edge of the talan and watched as theydeparted in the graceful gray boats of the elves. The lady of the wood stood at the water's edge, a vision in white. The boats slipped from Intara's view and around a bend in the river and she leaned back groaning at the pain lancing through her. Rumil came up to the talan afterwards and sat with her for some time, speaking quietly.

"Haldir was disappointed that he had to return to the fences."

"He said he'd be back soon enough."

"Aye. But he'd like to spend time with you. Last time—"

"Last time I had to leave. That could not be avoided." She said cutting him off. "And I shall have to leave again this time, there's no use dwelling on it or trying to change it."

"Can you never just remain in one place!?!" Rumil's voice rose. "You are always moving forward mindlessly…you are no better than those nazgul!" He stood from his seat and glared at her. "You never chance to look at what you leave behind and see that others care for you."

"Everyone that I ever cared for ended up dead!" Intara lashed back. "Don't you see that if I move on, everyone else is the better for it?"

"Not everyone, Intara." Rumil left the talan quickly and Intara went to sleep feeling vile for driving away a friend.

* * *

_

* * *

Vanimle sila tiri--- Your beauty shines bright._

_Kela_--- Go Away!

_Tenna telwan san'---_Until Later then.


	7. The Heart of the Matter

Intara's sleep was plagued with old memories; old memories that she had not looked upon in many, many, _many_ years.

* * *

She had been riding in the mountains above what she thought to be Fangorn and gotten stuck in a storm. She'd been riding alone for weeks tracking orcs but had lost them in the mountains. She wasn't sure where she was or where she was going and was just enjoying her time alone. The storm had started out light enough but had grown worse with the setting of the sun. It was a bad storm; one of the worst ones she'd ever seen. The lightening popped and flashed above her head and she ducked as the thunder rolled. She tried to keep her horse calm and looked for shelter in which to get out of the elements. She'd found none, but as the storm raged up the side of the mountain, her horse spooked, lost it's footing and bolted out of sight. Intara had been thrown from the horses back and had rolled down the steep cliffs until finally coming to a stop on a narrow ledge. It had taken her the better part of the night to get off the mountain. She'd been forced to move slowly, only moving in the flashes of lightening.

Occasionally a bolt had popped overhead and had shattered the rock wall above her, sending a shower of sharp rocks raining down the mountain side. Sometime before dawn she had slipped on the scree and found herself tumbling down the hill with the shale and boulders she'd managed to knock loose. She'd managed to roll clear of the debris at the bottom and had crawled towards the fringe of trees.

She could see her horse chomping the grass lazily in the soft mist that seeped from between the ancient trunks. She cursed loudly as she stumbled and staggered towards it. As she approached it reared and whinnied in the pale light and made for the deep trees. She had wandered in after it, knowing that it would tire of it's game and eventually she'd be able to catch it. She had to take frequent stops to catch her breath. She hurt all over, and she could feel blood trickling across her skin in places. During one of these rests she looked around her and took in the look of the trees. She could see that the forest was old, but not as dense as Fangorn. She hadn't been sure of her exact location when the storm started and she certainly wasn't sure now that her head was throbbing with fatigue.

Rain trickled through the leaves; the air was filled with the sweet, moist scent of the clean air. She leaned her head back against one of the old trunks as the rain came down and washed across her face. She did not remember passing out, but she did remember waking up at the base of the tree.

She had awoken to see Haldir hovering above her. He spoke in slow, deliberate Sindarin that echoed in her ears. She couldn't manage a reply and closed her eyes, hoping that she'd be taken for an enemy and killed on the spot. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in strong arms, wrapped in a warm cloak. The trees above her moved by quickly as she was carried through the woods and into the city of Lothlorien for the first time.

She remembered bits and pieces of her first few days in Lothlorien before she was able to move under her own power around the city. She vaguely remembered seeing Haldir's worried face as it hovered over Galadriel's shoulder as she tried to heal Intara. He sat with her long into the night and spoke with her when she was awake. When she was well, he gave her tours of the city and even took her out to the fences once as a member of the watch.

Somehow, he had fallen for her, and inevitably she for him.

Intara and Haldir had become the gossip piece of Lothlorien. Elf and human relationships were seldom heard of and rarely came to any good. They had try to keep it secret, or fight it, but it had been useless.

One day, while on her way to the fences to visit Haldir, Intara was stopped by Galadriel.

"This is not something you wish to do." Intara and Galadriel watched each other closely without actually facing one another.

"Pardon me?"

"Do not distract him, Intara. He has his own business to attend to. I will not see him fade for love of a mortal woman." Galadriel disappeared into the trees before Intara could respond.

In spite of the warnings their love for one another had escalated. It was during her time in Lothlorien that she sent the fine blade Elrond had given her to Arwen with a group baring gifts for the young elleth from her grandmother. Haldir had not liked the idea of sending such a fine weapon away, but Intara knew it was right.

"I was merely keeping it safe for her until she was ready to carry it." She glanced around the woods. "Besides, I like it here….I think I could be happy here. What use would I have for such a fine blade in a place such as this?"

"I think it is time for you to leave." Galadriel said to her one day. "You have overstayed your welcome."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Lady. I did not mean to intrude." Intara said bowing. "I'll just wait for Haldir to return so I…" But Galadriel interrupted.

"I shall tell him of your departure. There is a horse waiting for you now. It is packed and ready for you."

Intara stood silently and looked at the woman before her. Galadriel's eyes were hard and filled with anger.

"Is this because of our relationship?"

"I told you to end it. I told you not to fall for him." Galadriel's eyes softened. "It is the only way to protect him."

"So…you would deny me the one true ray of happiness I've found in years to protect him….from what!?!"

"To protect him from himself; to protect you!" Galadriel said stepping closer to Intara. "You are mortal, even if your life is excessively long. Whatever it was that Armand did to you; it is done and can not be changed. But you _will_ die, Intara. Make no doubt of that. Your death would break his heart and he would fade." Galadriel closed her eyes before locking Intara in their steady gaze. "I will not see that happen."

Intara looked away and would not lock eyes with the lady of the wood.

"_If you truly love him, you will leave Lothlorien and forget about him."_

Intara brought her eyes back to Galadriel's as the other woman's voice echoed through her head.

"Then I take my leave of you." Intara whispered, her heart hardening painfully in her chest.

Intara rode for the southern edge of the woods and back across the plains into Rohan. She did not look back, not when she'd broken from the cover of the trees, not when they'd disappeared over the hill behind her, and not when she'd crossed the river. She would not look back for fear that she'd want to return, and she would _never_ return to Lorien while it was in her power to do so.

She would not if that's what it meant to keep Haldir alive.

* * *

Intara woke from her dream breathing heavily. She had nearly forgotten why she had avoided the woods all these years. She saw a shadow leave the doorway and was sure it was Haldir, but she didn't call him back. She did not wish to rekindle the friendship they had once had.

It took several days before Intara was able to limp painfully out of the talan she'd been put in. She moved slowly and kept one hand protectively against her battered ribs.

"You shouldn't be up and about yet, Intara." Galadriel's musical voice brought Intara to a halt.

"The faster I'm up, the faster I'm gone." Intara muttered. "Isn't that what you want?" she asked as she looked over her shoulder at the beautiful elf.

"No." Intara turned to face Galadriel, confusion plainly written on her face. "I hope you can forgive me for forcing you out last time."

"You did what was right by you and yours."

"I fear I did you and Haldir a great disservice." Galadriel sighed. "The world is not as it once was and nothing makes sense any more."

"You have done all you can." Intara said softly, knowing that Galadriel, for all her wisdom and insight into the world around her was as confused as anyone.

Galadriel sighed, a crease formed on her perfect brow and she looked off into the West. "I wish there was more we could do. Just know that I am sorry."

Intara watched as Galadriel ascended the stairs up to her flet and left Intara on the ground, confused as ever.

* * *

Intara stood beside one of the streams running through Lorien, and gazed across it. She had been laid up in Lorien for two weeks, the pain in her gut finally easing off the week before. Her leg still hurt, but her daily walks through the woods were improving that situation. She looked behind her and looked at the path she had just taken. It continued on the other side of the creek, but the bridge was gone. She did not wish to go back the way she came…there was a hill she did not want to have to climb.

"_Well, I might as well jump the creek. If my leg gives out, it gives out, if not, I'm on the road to recovery."_ She thought.

Intara took a deep breath and ran forwards and launched herself through the air and only barely landed on the other side of the creek. She waved her arms trying to steady herself but found her hand caught and she was pulled forward, away from the cold water and into a strong embrace.

"_Mani naa lle umien_?" Haldir asked as he looked down at her dark eyes. "You are barely healed."

"Just seeing how much longer I have to go." She took a step away and winced, grasping at her stomach which pained her again suddenly. "Longer than I thought, I suppose."

"_Esta sinome_…"

"I think I'd prefer to walk." Intara said limping away from the elf. "I have things to do to prepare to leave."

"You won't be leaving any time soon."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because you are not well enough to depart."

"I am and I will. I decide when I move on, and I must catch up to the fellowship." There was a frosty bite to her voice as she continued on.

"Intara, _Tampa_!" Intara stopped abruptly but did not turn to face Haldir. "Please, stop and talk with me."

"I thought we were talking." Intara was shocked when she was suddenly turned around to face the larger elf.

"You know what I mean. You know of what I wish to speak."

"I'd rather not."

"_Mankoi_?" Intara had to avert her gaze so that she did not see the pained look in Haldir's eyes. "Why did you leave the last time without saying good bye? Why did you not wait for me to return?"

"I was not given that luxury." Intara said softly as she finally met his eyes. "I was forced to leave, and with good reason."

"What reason was that?"

"For you…for your well being." She whispered. "I left to protect you."

Haldir shook his head slightly as he brought his hand up to cup her chin in his strong fingers.

"Intara…"

"Please don't…not now." She whispered. Haldir's hand left her chin and he looked at her with a pained and puzzled expression on his solemn face. "I can't…."

She turned quickly and hobbled away as fast as she could but didn't look back. If she had, she might have seen the defeated look cross his face and his shoulders sag as she disappeared behind the trees.

* * *

Rumil entered the flet where Intara was staying while she finished recovering. He stared as she sat on her bed sharpening one of her knives. Intara knew he was there but did not look up.

"Haldir has not spoken in two days." Rumil said abruptly. "Anyone that crosses his path is close to jumping out of his way because of that glare of his. What did you say to him?"

"Nothing." She gazed down the length of the blade but did not look up at him.

Rumil crossed his arms over his chest. "Why do you hurt him so? Do you take pleasure in inflicting pain on others? Is your sense of decency so warped?"

Rumil was satisfied with the reaction he got as she flung her blade onto the mattress and stood quickly to face him. Her jaw was firmly set, her eyes narrowed angrily and her fists were clenched at her sides. Her leg was still stiff and as she walked forward her left leg hit the floor heavily and dragged slightly. She stood close to him and glared up at the taller elf.

"How DARE you speak of what you do not know." She hissed angrily. "You know nothing of the pain I suffered at leaving this place. I did not wish to come here, but at the time, I had no other choice at my disposal."

"Then tell me what happened." Rumil said grasping her shoulder. "Tell me the reason! I can explain it to him…make him understand!"

"I can't!" Intara shouted, backing away. "I wish to the valar I could but I can not! It is a private matter."

Rumil glared at her. His eyes cutting into her as she pulled away and sat back down on her bed.

"It is true what they say about you then…" Rumil's laugh was cold and he looked at her with distaste. "You must have made a deal with the dwarves to give you a marble heart…no one could be so cold and indifferent had they blood running through their veins."

Rumil turned too quickly for Intara to stop him. She wouldn't have even if she could.

* * *

Haldir waited beside the stream and stood at attention, listening to the wind sigh through the mallorn trees. Galadriel had sent him a missive asking to meet here. He had planned to depart for the border, but would delay the trip to speak with the lady. He heard the grasses swish slightly behind him and he turned to see Intara standing on the path with a confused look on her face.

"_Mani naa lle umien sinome_?" She asked. She had thought he'd left for the fences early that morning. She was supposed to meet Galadriel here to discuss her departure plans.

"I have an important meeting with Galadriel." He said tersely.

"That vile witch." Intara said softly. Haldir turned angry eyes on the woman that would insult his queen. "She sent me a letter telling me to meet her here as well….she planned this."

Haldir's features softened slightly in confusion. Intara approached and stood beside him, looking out over the forest.

"You are leaving soon then?" Haldir asked after the silence between them became unbearable.

"It is my hope to leave soon. Elrond entrusted me to follow the fellowship, I will not fail the city of Rivendell." She looked at the blonde haired elf beside her. "You fight for Lorien in a similar way as I fight for Rivendell."

"You are still bound to them then?" Haldir asked.

"Yes." Intara said. "I owe them a great deal."

A breeze sighed through the trees and kicked up the leaves and carried them into the stream, making little boats out of them. They watched one float downstream and then get crushed beneath a small, gurgling waterfall.

"Where have you been? Long have you traveled Middle Earth since our last meeting."

Intara was silent for some time as she pondered her answer.

"I traveled all of Middle Earth. In recent years I had been watching over the pilgrimages from Rivendell to the sea." Haldir nodded. "I envied them…their journeys to peace and rest."

Silence filled the space between them.

"And what about you? What have you done since last time?" She asked softly, she felt it would be rude if he inquired about her but she didn't reciprocate.

"I am March Warden now." Haldir raised his head, proud of his station. "I am in charge of all the warden's now….head of the city's defenses."

"Quite a step up from last time. Congratulations." She said with sincerity.

"Thank you." Haldir smiled a smile he didn't truly feel, but did not say anything more. The breeze danced through the trees and made the branches sigh and groan above their heads. She waited for it to still before she spoke again.

"I have something to tell you…." Intara said softly. "I feel it's time you know….I feel that Galadriel brought us here to talk about what happened the last time…." She sensed Haldir stiffen beside her. This was an uncomfortable subject and difficult to broach.

"Very well. What is it you wish to say?"

"I was asked to leave." Intara started out. "Galadriel asked me to leave." Haldir stared at Intara. "She knew the feelings we had for one another. All of Lorien did…it wasn't hard to ignore."

"I suppose it wasn't." Intara found it difficult to keep a serious face and demeanor as Haldir's cheeks took on a soft blush in the bright light. His jaw stiffened and twitched as he held his tongue and did not say anything.

"She knew the danger your love for a mortal woman put you in. She knew that if I stayed, neither one of us would fulfill our purposes."

"And what are our purposes, Intara?" He said turning his head to stare at her, his silver blue eyes pierced into her soul and touched a chord within her that she had thought long dead. She nearly lost herself in those depths before she found the means to escape and answer him.

"Yours was obviously to become March Warden…mine is to die." She saw Haldir grimace at the way she tossed so serious a word as 'die' about as if she were talking about the weather. "The lady all but said as much. But some people meet their destinies quicker than others, I suppose." The last was meant as a joke, but neither laughed. "I was going to wait for your return from the fences to say goodbye, but Galadriel thought it best that I leave right away. Looking back, I think it might have been for the best."

"I was heartbroken when you left." Haldir said, the pain in his voice cutting into Intara. "I begged the lady to let me go after you, but she denied my requests. She said I'd forget you with time. I think I knew deep in my heart that she was behind it, but I refused to believe it."

"It was probably best you didn't come after me. I spent quite a few years after leaving here putting myself into bad situations." She thought back on all the brawls she got into and the blind killing of raiding bands of orcs. She had hoped to die so that the pain in her heart would go away. Perhaps that was where the legend of the marble heart had come from.

"Do you still…do you ever regret it? Leaving?" He asked. He turned to face Intara when she did not respond right away. "No lies."

"Yes." She said finally, the sound no louder than the breeze surrounding them. Haldir grasped her hand in his and stood closer to her. "I've regretted it often. But there's nothing that can change the decision I made. What's done is done."

Time seemed to stand still as he brushed his thumb across the back of her hand and they became lost in each other's eyes. Intara found it difficult to breath, to move or to think as Haldir's blue eyes drilled through her. He had a power over her, he always had. A branch snapping in the distance brought her attention back to what was happening and she turned quickly to leave. Haldir's grip tightened on her hand and he pulled her back to him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"We're done here….everything has been said."

"And you think you can just walk away again?"

"I must. I have a duty…"

"Don't talk to me of 'duty' Intara. We all have one duty or another…"

"Let me go…" Haldir tightened his grip on her wrist and pulled her closer to him as she tried to pull away. They were less than a hands breadth apart, both staring eye to eye with the other. Haldir was the first to speak.

"Let us not argue any more." Haldir whispered in her ear, his breath danced warmly across her neck as he held fast to her wrist, not letting her get away from him again. He swiftly leaned down and brought his lips to hers in a soft and tentative kiss. He felt her shudder and she tried to move away from him, but one easy hand on her back and she melted into his broad chest, deepening the kiss that they'd been craving to share since her return to Lothlorien.

* * *

_A/N: Sorry this one was so long, but I hope it answered a lot of the questions that have popped up. Thanks for reading!

* * *

_

_Mani naa lle umien---_ What are you doing?

_esta sinome---_ Rest here

_Tampa---_ Stop

_Mankoi_--- Why?

_Mani naa lle umien sinome_?--- What are you doing here?


	8. Moving on

Intara stretched slowly, the stiffness slow to leave her sore left knee. Warm fingertips trailed across the flesh on her hip as light as the breeze blowing outside. She smirked and turned into Haldir's warm chest, her dark hair spilling over her shoulders in dark waves.

One thing was for sure, if there was an elf in Lorien that did not know Intara had returned, they certainly knew after last night.

Haldir ran his fingers up her spine, the smooth skin marred by old scars that hadn't been allowed to heal properly. She'd had many of them when they had met years ago. She had far more now. One scar stood out, a bright, fiery white against the muscular flesh of right arm; another marred the perfect skin of her chest. The worst was an angry looking gash that went across her entire waist, just above her belly button. It was bisected by another, shorter gash that went from the bottom of her sternum to just above her navel. He'd found those the night before.

"Do they hurt?" He asked, his fingertips dancing across the scar on her arm.

"No. Not anymore." She murmured. He leaned back and let the early morning sunlight wash over her. He reached between them and fingered the vertical scar above her navel.

"This I remember, but this one…" He fingered the longer scar. "This one is new since the last time."

"You must be a warrior. Only warriors would share battle stories in bed." She said trying to evade his question as she drew the bed coverings up over her body. She was not self conscious about her scars; she just did not wish to remember the stories behind them all.

"Tell me when you wish to. We have plenty of time." He pressed his lips to hers and enjoyed the sensation of her tongue dueling with his. They were both dominant beings, and neither wanted to submit to their partner.

But Haldir was wrong. They did not have plenty of time.

* * *

Haldir had requested a leave of absence from the fences and orchestrated the watches from the city. Galadriel smiled knowingly, but allowed the absence. She understood they were making up for lost time.

Rumil and Intara finally made up. Rumil had come to her apologizing for his harsh words to her.

"I deserved every syllable." Intara had said. And it was true. She'd needed to hear everything and come to terms with the world around her.

Haldir and Intara were lying in bed late one morning when the sound of horns trumpeted through the woods. Both warriors were out of bed in an instant, pulling on trousers, boots, jerkins and shirts. They both exited the talan; Intara fastening her sword around her waist and hair slightly askew, Haldir looking Regal in his warden uniform and not a hair out of place.

"_Elves,_" Intara grumbled mentally. "_never look rushed or hurried. I could live a hundred years more and still not understand how they manage to pull it off."_

The gates to the city were flung wide and several hundred dark haired Rivendell elves marched into the city, pennants flying in the gentle breeze.

"Why does Rivendell send an army to Lorien?" Haldir asked, looking for the captain. "What are your orders?"

"They are to join forces with some of our men and help the men of Rohan defend themselves against Saruman's army." Galadriel said descending from the great heights of one of the trees. "See that they are well rested. You all depart for Helms Deep within a week."

Intara and Haldir passed a nearly imperceptible nod between one another and departed to prepare themselves for a busy week.

* * *

"I should have known better. I should not have tarried." Intara paced back and forth across the floor of her talan as Haldir unbuckled the sword belt from his hip and loosened his tunic. "Something has happened."

"It is not your fault. There is nothing you could do."

"I was entrusted to follow them. I delayed." Intara fumed. "I failed Rivendell."

"You did no such thing. Your leg took a full three weeks to heal properly. Not that you didn't try to make it take longer with your stubbornness." Haldir enjoyed that she bristled slightly. "You would have done them no good if you had followed. You'd probably have…." He would not say the last part. He might have been an immortal being, but he did not speak lightly of death. He had seen it take many of his people in spite of their immortality.

"Gotten myself killed?" It was Intara's turn to take satisfaction in the reaction she got out of Haldir. "I am mortal Haldir. That is my destiny."

"You are destined to do other things than just die, Intara." He said shortly. He did not wish to argue with her when their time together had been cut so short.

"But it all leads up to the same thing. I will not die an old woman, Haldir. That I know. I have killed far too many people in my life and reined down far too much anger and unhappiness on Middle Earth for the Powers Above to allow me that end." She looked out across Lorien and listened as Lorien and Rivendell elves mingled with one another in the twilight, catching up on news between the two cities, and singing happily. She jumped slightly as Haldir wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin against her shoulder. "I will die in battle. I am a warrior….as such, it is my destiny to die." She whispered.

"Let us not talk about such dark things in the golden wood." He whispered into her ear. The feeling of his warm breath against her neck sent shivers down her spine and she allowed Haldir to guide her to bed.

* * *

In the silver moonlight Intara opened her eyes and gazed at the leaves of the tree above her. She stared as they rustled and moved slowly in the breeze.

"What are you thinking of?" Haldir was lying beside her, also staring at the leaves above them.

"About how all the time in the world never seems to be enough." She clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth and sighed. Slowly she grasped his hand in hers brushed her thumb across his knuckles. "Do you really want to hear about what I did after leaving here?" He turned his head to look at her, silver eyes meeting emerald.

"Only if you truly want to tell me."

"I do….really." And so Intara launched into the long saga of what she'd done since leaving Lorien and the situations she'd thrown herself into in an attempt to forget. She left the scar on her stomach until last.

"I was with a regiment of rangers and we had been tasked with finding a marauding band of wild men up in the westfold of Rohan. We had been ordered to put a stop to their reign of terror. We were unable to find them for days….we just couldn't manage to locate them, and then we realized that they were tracking us." The sun was just beginning to lighten the flet and Intara paused to take in the beauty of the dawn. "We came up with a plan and I volunteered to be the bait. One of the wildmen came up to where I was feigning sleep. He towered over me, but I had been told not to move until the others in his party were visible. I saw him pull the knife, and still, I did not move. And then…" She paused momentarily as the scenes from that long ago night danced in her mind's eye.

Haldir watched and saw the distant look in her eye, knowing she was no longer in his bed, but in some distant clearing, reliving the attack. "And then what?" He asked, drawing her back to the present.

"And then the others leapt from hiding. They had suspected the trap and had surrounded us. They killed the rest of the rangers or injured them. The one above me slashed at me but I fought back. I had to kill him. I was so weak…I'd lost so much blood that I almost didn't make it out…eventually I met up with the survivors of the band and they tried to patch me up, but it was no use….not much could be done for something of this length." She fingered the scar absentmindedly.

"I'm sorry."

"It was not your fault." Intara said lacing her fingers with his again. "What could you have done?"

"I should have followed you." Intara leaned up and placed a soft, loving kiss on his lips.

"If you had followed me and protected me, then what would we be talking about in bed, if not my scars?" She whispered against his lips. He kissed her fiercely, silencing her thoughts and words for the time being.

* * *

The day before they were slated to leave, Galadriel called Intara to her flet.

"I have a gift for you." She said with a twinkle in her eye. "I gave the other members of the fellowship gifts…it is only fitting that I bestow one on you as well."

"I am honored." Galadriel turned and pulled a piece of fabric from the table behind her. It was a set of lightweight battle armor. All of it was brushed a dull black.

"I believe black is your preferred color, is it not?" Galadriel asked as Intara stepped forward to inspect the items. The breast plate covered her chest, shoulders and sides and stopped just above the bottom of her rib cage. It would not hinder her mobility. Beneath it she could wear her chain mail shirt and be remarkably well protected. There were a set of finely crafted gauntlets on the table, simple, with no adornments. The last item on the table was a pair of trousers, padded in all the right places for riding and with the added protection of chain mail sections on the out side parts of her leg where she'd be most likely to be attacked. Lastly, Galadriel handed Intara a helmet to match the rest of the armor.

"I can not accept this." Intara said. "As usual, the elves are far too kind to me."

"You will accept it since I asked Lord Elrond to send it on with the army. He would not send you after the Fellowship ill prepared." Galadriel smiled. "I just took the liberty of having it polished black for you."

"I shall never be able to repay your kindness." Intara whispered as she brushed her fingers over the three stars that were carved into the breast plate. Arwen must have known about the armor as well, for that would have been her special touch. Intara took the pieces and carried them to where she was now sleeping in the camps with the rest of the soldiers.

* * *

The next morning all of the warriors who were to leave gathered on the shore of the Nimrodel and climbed into long boats. They would row through the woods and into the Anduin where they would move with all haste until the reached the falls at Rauros. From there they'd leave the boats and travel over land to Helms Deep where it was said that Saruman's army was heading.

Intara knew all this for she had been at the council of war with Haldir. She awoke early in the morning and donned her new armor and tucked the helmet beneath her arm. The parting ceremony was brief and Intara climbed aboard the ship with the others.

"To oars!" Intara took up her place at one of the oar locks and started to row. The boats were constructed with enough space for half the soldiers to row, and half to relax, or be prepared to defend the boats against attack.

Just after noon, the boots pushed out into the Anduin and one by one made the slow turn with the cross current and sped away. Half way through the day they all switched places. Intara's shoulder ached, but she made no mention of it. She sat against a barrel in the middle of the ship and watched the shores with a keen eye. She did not feel safe being stuck in the middle of a river. There was no real way of protecting themselves should someone decide to attack. It was just before nightfall when the elves switched places again and Intara took up a place at the oars. By the end of her stint at the oars her shoulder was on fire and stiff with fatigue. She stumbled across the moonlit deck and rested her head against a barrel, falling quickly to sleep with the dawn.

By dawn the next day they had reached Rauros. It was amazing what fifty elves at the oars of a boat could accomplish in a day. They moved quickly onto land and on the second day made it as far as the Entwash. Haldir decided to rest for the night and be prepared to march the next day in to Helms Deep. Intara made her camp separate from the rest of the elves and stared into the embers of her small fire. A hand clamped down on her shoulder and she groaned at the sharp pain it caused to stab through her arm.

"_Tula sinome_." She turned her head and saw Haldir walking towards his tent, his hair taking on a silver glow in the starlight.

Intara moved through the shadows and arrived at Haldir's tent before he did.

She stood at the center and looked around her. How they'd managed to pack a tent across land and still keep up the pace they had, Intara was not sure of, but she had often been surprised at the ingenuity of the elves. Haldir walked in and smirked when he saw her standing in the center of his tent.

"You're far too stubborn for your own good." He said removing his sword and placing it against a small table beside the door. "Why did you not say something sooner?"

"I'm sore." She responded without looking at him. "I'll not deny that."

"You can barely move your arm." He barked as he dug through a box beside his cot. "You never should have rowed as long as you did."

"I'm fine. Nothing a little salve won't cure." Haldir found what he was looking for and tossed a small container of salve to her. She reached across with her left hand and caught it easily.

"Damn woman!" Haldir swore. "You can not even move your arm!"

"I will be fine." Intara strode forward and glared at the March Warden. "I don't need you to baby sit me, Haldir of Lorien. I did just well enough on my own without you!"

Haldir reached out quickly and grasped her right shoulder and applied only a bit of pressure and watched as she winced and nearly dropped to her knees. It was a cruel trick, to use his elven reflexes against her, but it needed to be done.

She would not accept his help otherwise.

"Take a seat, and remove your shirt." Haldir ordered. Intara glared icily at him, cursing, but did as he asked. "And do not curse at me in that vile dwarf tongue. I did that for your own good."

Intara sat heavily on the stool and unlaced her shirt, but did not remove it.

"I can't get it off myself. I can't raise my arm up." Intara said softly.

"What was that?" Intara's skin bristled and she clamped her jaw tight. She could almost hear the mirth flowing in Haldir's voice. She knew his keen ears had caught her words. He just wanted her to say it again.

"You heard what I said. I'll not repeat myself."

"Very well." Haldir almost laughed outright as he reached for the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up over her head and carefully slid it down her other arm. He rubbed the salve into her shoulder, trying to be gentle until it eased the muscles, and then working deeper. She hissed as his fingers dug into the muscle, but did not complain. The silence and tension in the tent was potent and Haldir finally felt the need to break it. "Does it pain you often?"

"Pain? No. It is just an annoyance I wish I did not have to live with." She leaned forward trying to get away from the prodding fingers as Haldir rubbed deeper, but he held her in place. "It would seem to dislocate of its own accord and at the most inopportune moments."

"Such as?" He was just glad he had her talking instead of cursing him.

"Oh, once in the middle of a fight." Intara said concentrating on a pill of lint clinging to her pants. "One time, it dislocated itself while I slept. I'm not sure how that happened…actually it happens quite often. But I was ambushed in the night and was at a distinct disadvantage that time. Ouch! _Tanya arwa!_" Haldir stopped massaging her shoulder as she wrenched away and her shoulder popped loudly out of place. Intara let out a string of curses that would have made a balrog blush before she popped her shoulder back into place.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

"No, that was my fault." She said sitting back down. "A little softer this time, if you don't mind." She sighed as Haldir's fingers ghosted over her shoulders. He fingered the spot where she'd been struck by the orc arrow during her chase of the nazgul.

"This is fresh…it's still red." He moved his fingers over the slightly raised place on her back where the Rivendell healers had had to cut the shaft and head from her back.

"Don't….part of the arrow is still imbedded." She said stiffening and pulling away from the touch.

"Intara…" Haldir brushed her dark hair away from her back and over her left shoulder. "You are a reckless, fool hardy woman." He whispered in her right ear. He took pleasure in the shudder that went through her.

"I try hard."

"Promise me….promise me you'll be careful tomorrow." She stood and put her shirt back on, but did not answer him until she was dressed.

"I'll make no promises, Haldir. I can't." Intara laced the shirt back up and then stood close to the warden, looking up into his wonderful silver blue eyes. Lacing her fingers into his long, silky blonde hair she pulled him close to her and kissed him softly. "Good night." She whispered against his lips and she walked out of his tent and back to her own camp to prepare for the battle that was sure to come.

Tula sinome--- Come here.

Tanya Arwa--- That hurt!


	9. Into the Deep

_A/N: This one is a little heavy on the Sindarin, so bare with me._

* * *

Intara kept up as best she could with the elves as they ran across the plains and up the valley to Helms Deep.

The elves beside her were silent marchers and kept their eyes bent on the place in the canyon where torchlight flickered in the dim light. Intara rushed to the front, where Haldir led the elves. Penants snapped in the gentle breeze and the sound of marching feet reverberated against the smooth stone of the walkway.

"They are shouting to for the gates to be open to us. They are lucky we are not orcs in disguise." Haldir said solemnly.

"You mean you're not? You certainly smell like one." Intara muttered loud enough for him to hear. He grinned at that, but only for a moment before the solemn mask was dropped again.

Intara marched with the first rank of elves into Helms deep and followed the roadway around the curve and into the center of the keep. She followed Haldir and stood in front of the King of Rohan. She did not listen to what Haldir said, only that it sounded regal. He was good at sounding important. He'd be considered arrogant were he a human and not an elf.

Intara was distracted by Aragorn running down the steps and pulling Haldir into an embrace which the elf was slow to return. Legolas came down the steps and stood beside Intara without giving her a second glance or taking note of who she was. Aragorn looked over Haldir's shoulder at her and his face showed recognition.

"Intara? You as well?"

"I am bound to Rivendell…so sayeth the lord of the city, there shall I go." She said repeating that which she had told Gimli when their journey began. Legolas took a step away from her and looked her over. No more did she look like a dull ranger of the north, but a gleaming warrior, in spite of the discolored look of her armor. Her features were strong, her eyes shone with determination and she seemed stronger than he had ever before seen her. Aragorn stood before her and looked as if he wanted to embrace her as well, but was restraining himself.

"I'm glad you came." Aragorn said finally, and Intara bowed her head slightly.

The ranks of elves behind them suddenly turned, as one, and faced the men of Rohan who until that moment had lost hope.

* * *

Intara followed Aragorn in to the keep with Haldir to receive their orders.

"We assume that the orcs are going to come at us in solid waves. We can hold them off for some time with archers. That length of time can be extended with your help." Aragorn said looking at Haldir. "We were remarkably short on experienced archers."

"From what I saw when I entered, you are remarkably short on experienced anything." Intara growled softly. At the harsh look she received from Aragorn she changed the subject. "I can not pull a bow, you know that. What would you have me do?"

"Haldir, I will entrust the left to you. I will be in the center and Intara on the right." Aragorn said as he pointed out the map. "We will stave off the forces as long as we can with arrows, but when that fails, and surely it will, they will come up over the wall."

"And then it's hand to hand combat." Haldir said glancing briefly at Intara. "Not the most efficient plan…but the best considering our resources."

"What of Boromir?" Intara asked as she chewed on a hard piece of dried meat. "Is he off to Gondor to find us reinforcements?"

"Boromir is dead." Intara coughed on the piece of meat stuck in her throat and groped for water.

"When?" She wheezed.

"A week past."

"And the hobbits? Where are they?" She had assumed they were in the caves with the women and children, but with this news she was beginning to doubt that. If what he said was true, then the Fellowship was shattered.

"Merry and Pippin were captured by the Urukhai and taken towards Isengard." At the alarmed look that flickered in Intara's eyes Aragorn held up his hand. "They are well though…they escaped into Fangorn."

"Fangorn!" She rose quickly. Aragorn lay a hand on her arm to calm her.

"That is an ancient forest, and they are young. How could they survive in such a place?" Haldir asked. Aragorn looked at him as if he were only just now realizing the elf was still in the room. He cleared his throat.

"Haldir, a moment alone with my cousin, please." Haldir looked to Intara before he rose, bowed to Aragorn and went to make preparations on the wall. Intara sat back down.

"What of Sam and Frodo. Were they captured as well?"

"They are still going to Mordor….I think."

"You _think_?"

"When Boromir was killed, Frodo and Sam took their leave of the rest of us and made for Mordor without us. Gimli, Legolas and I went after Merry and Pippin."

Intara was silent for a moment. "I never should have let you leave Lorien without me."

"There was nothing you could have done to protect them." Aragorn admonished. "I have spent the last week berating myself for their capture. But we have bigger concerns facing us now."

"So says you, Aragorn, son of Arathorn." Intara's voice oozed with disdain. "The man who would be King was he to embrace his destiny the same as he embraced Haldir on his arrival." She leaned on the table and glared down at him. Aragorn rose from his seat and stood tall, but would not allow her eye to catch his.

"I think we should prepare for battle against the Uruk-hai and not fight ourselves." Aragorn said sharply. She paused a moment before she turned on her heel and made for her position on the wall.

* * *

The elves and men were stationed along the hornburg wall. Haldir, to the far left, Aragorn in the center, and Intara to the right, closest to the keep. Several rows of archers were behind the wall, ready to send a hail of arrows into the air and down into the Uruk-hai on the other side. Satisfied that things were under control for the moment, Intara left her position on the wall and walked slowly to where Aragorn paced between his position and Haldir's.

"Were I not to know what it is baring those torches, I might think it a beautiful sight." She said as she came to stop beside Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas.

The Urukhai were a thick black cancer filling the bottom of the valley. Thousands of them bore torches to light their way and the whole mass sparkled with the firelight as it moved over the rocks and crevasses filling the valley.

"I wish I knew what it was you were looking at lass. The elf here picked the worse possible spot." Legolas smirked.

Intara looked past the other fellowship members to where Haldir stood gazing at the approaching enemy as well. He looked calm and composed; as if it were a passing flock of geese and not an orc army of ten thousand.

"_Lle Desiel?"_ She asked as she came to stand beside him. He took his eyes from the orcs and glanced at her, a smirk on his face. In the centuries she'd been alive, he thought she might be able to speak Sindarin slightly better than she did. She was just too stubborn to pick much of it up and when she did use an infrequent phrase or two, it was usually to curse someone or was so badly pronounced it was comical.

"I am ready. Are you though?"

"Very." She answered. Her eyes looked steadfastly out over the flat plain before the fortress and at the advancing orc army. He had seen that look on her face before; she hoped that her death was out there. "_Uuma ma'ten'rashwe, ta tuluva a'lle." _He grasped her hand in his and forced her dark eyes to meet his. _"Amin sinta thaliolle e dagor._ You will live."

"_Tira ten' rashwe, mellonamin."_

"_Tira ten' rashwe, meleth."_ Intara pulled her hand from his before he could lean in and kiss her and dashed off to her side of the fortifications without a backwards glance.

* * *

The orcs stopped their advance on the fortress about three hundred feet from the wall. They beat their shields with their swords, stamped their feet in the dirt, and tamped their lances down in a terrible cadence. Several opened their gaping maws and let out hideous growls and groans.

The sky was cleaved in two as a bolt of lightening rent the air, adding its electric charge to that of the battle. Thunder rolled, barely audible for all the noise of the ten thousand orcs. Rain began to fall slowly, adding a delicate 'ping' to the symphony as it bounced off the armor of the warriors on the wall.

Aragorn shouted orders for them all to hold, Intara echoed them to her line. They all waited with baited breath, tense, knowing the battle was moments away.

Suddenly a single arrow pierced the night and struck one of the Uruk-hai in the neck. The creature groaned and then pitched forward into the muck.

Ten thousand Urukhai grew strangely silent, and then burst forth against the wall. Just as King Theoden had predicted they broke against the wall like water against the shores. The archers on the wall were able to keep many of the advancing enemy at bay, but eventually bows proved to be useless and the uruk-hai were able to place ladders against the wall. As they streamed over the wall, they were met with the blades of the defenders. Intara threw her dead enemies back over the wall and into the arms of their brethren. Elves cried out in pain as they were stabbed by the much larger Uruk-hai. The top of the deeping wall was a swirling mass of orc, man and elf. Blood ran across the smooth surface of the ancient wall and down the crevasses in crimson rivers.

It seemed to Intara as if the fighting would never end. Every time she killed an orc, ten more replaced them. She was fighting fiercely on the wall when she suddenly heard Aragorn shouting above the din of battle.

"Bring him down! Bring him down!" She did not have a chance to see what was going on but felt the wall shudder beneath her feet. Turning, she saw it blow out and up into the night. Huge blocks of stone, sharp bits of shrapnel and an incredible amount of dust rained down upon the unsuspecting defenders on the remainder of the wall.

Intara was thrown back into the wall by the concussion of the blast and covered her head to keep from being knocked out by the debris. When she stood again, her ears rang and sound seemed to be coming from the next valley over, not right next to her. It was as if her head were under water and she was forced to view the world from that perspective. She pulled her helmet from her head and let her dark hair fall over her shoulders, the ends sticking to her soaked armor. She thought that the helmet had been the cause of her hearing problems, but realized it was something else now.

Saruman's army poured in through the hole in the wall and started to fight with the defenders. Gimli leapt from the wall and began hacking at the advancing uruk-hai, swinging his ax furiously. Aragorn stood in the open, near what had been the shore of the lake and ordered the other archers to fire into the aggressors. Intara fought her way farther and farther down the wall, and as she came closer to where she could descend and get into the main part of the fray, her hearing became clearer and her ears quit ringing. Rushing down the stairs she went to Aragorn for orders.

She glanced at the top of the wall and saw Haldir still fighting there. It was easy to spot him, armor gleaming white gold in the shallow light, crimson cloak flowing behind him as he beheaded another orc.

"Aragorn! Fall back to the keep! Get your men out of there!" The voice of King Theoden echoed across the Horburg. Intara reached the place where Aragorn was fighting and helped him pull Gimli up out of the water.

"We have to fall back, Aragorn. There are too many of them here." Intara shouted as they pulled the dwarf from the water and passed him off to Legolas and another elf.

"I know. Get back to the keep." Aragorn said grasping her arm.

"Not until you're back. I'll cover you." Aragorn only stood and shouted his orders in both Westron and Sindarin, his voice echoing through the battle. "Haldir! Fall back to the keep!" Haldir turned and acknowledged the order and defended himself against an onrushing Urukhai.

For Intara, time seemed to come to a standstill. She watched from her place on the ground as Haldir drove his blade into another orc and shouted to his archers to fall back. She saw the soldier behind Haldir fall by the blade of an Uruk-hai who had just come over the wall. With one swipe, the Uruk came at Haldir's unprotected left said and slashed into him. Intara might have screamed, but she wasn't sure. Haldir killed the offender and looked down at his side where blood rushed over the once gleaming armor.

"_HALDIR_!" Intara and Aragorn rushed as one to the stairs to get to the top of the wall. Intara threw Uruk-hai out of her way but could focus on little. Her world seemed to be caving in around her, centering only on Haldir. When she reached the top of the wall she saw an Uruk bring an ax down into the back of Haldir's head. "NO!" She screamed..

She threw one of her knives and watched as it imbedded itself at the base of the Uruk's skull and the creature fell with a dull thud on the already crowded battlement. Just as Haldir started to fall, Intara grasped his shoulders and lowered him into her lap. His eyes focused on hers.

"Get back to the keep." He whispered slowly. Intara shook her head. "_Melamin_….go."

"No. I won't let you leave me." She said fisting his cloak in her hands. He smiled as he saw tears begin to brim in her eyes.

"It is…better…" His eyes started to roll back .

"Haldir!" She shook him and brought his eyes back to her.

"It is my time. _Uumu dela._ I will see you again. _Tenna'…Tenna' ento….lye omenta, meleth."_

"I love you." She blurted suddenly. She felt choked and could not draw a breath as she stared into Haldir's once sharp eyes.

Aragorn knelt beside her as Haldir's head fell back and he stared at the sky above them, a slight smile on his face having heard her last words to him. Aragorn placed a bloodied hand on Haldir's armor over his heart, blessing him and wishing him godspeed. Intara allowed one tear to track down her face and off her chin. It got lost amongst the rain drops on his armor.

"_Lye nuqernuva sen e dagor I'narr en gothrim glinuva nuin l'anor. Amin mela lle."_ Intara wiped a tear from her cheek as she whispered to the corpse of the one person in all of Middle Earth who had brought her true happiness. "Get out of here." Her voice was flat and unnervingly cold. Aragorn stared at her, unsure if she had spoken.

"Intara, you can't stay here." He grasped her shoulder but she shrugged him off. "We must…"

"Get back to the keep." She said rising slowly, leaving Haldir's body where it fell. "They need you. King Theoden needs help." She pointed off to where the Uruk's were bashing the gates in. Aragorn turned to look and when he turned back, she had disappeared into the fray.

* * *

_

* * *

Lle Desiel?" --- Are you ready?_

_Uuma ma'ten'rashwe, ta tuluva a'lle--- _Don't look for trouble, it will come to you.

_Amin sinta thaliolle e dagor_--- I know your strength in battle.

_Tira ten' rashwe, mellonamin-----_ Be careful, my friend

_Tira ten' rashwe, meleth_--- Be careful, my love.

Uumu dela--- Don't worry

_Tenna' ento lye omenta---_ Until next we meet.

_lye nuqernuva sen e dagor-----_ We will defeat them in battle.

_I'narr en gothrim glinuva nuin l'anor._----- The bones of our foes will gleam under the sun

_Amin mela lle--- _I love you.


	10. After the Battle

Intara woke slowly. Smoke drifted on a gentle breeze and filled her nostrils. It was acrid and burned her lungs as she slowly filled them with air. She stared up at the sky for several minutes wondering what had happened.

…_..lye nuqernuva sen e dagor_

Haldir's fall replayed itself in her mind. She repeatedly saw his eyes lose their light, his blood running warm and slick on her hands. Her mind churned over and over the image of the orc plunging the ax into the back of his head. She felt bile rise in her throat and she wanted to retch.

….._ I'narr en gothrim glinuva nuin l'anor._

She had gone on a rampage. She remembered picking up both her sword and Haldir's and then moving across the battlement killing anything that moved.

Spinning, turning, slashing, cutting, and hacking; she was a force to be reckoned with. She remembered the exact moment the cold took hold in her chest and hardened her heart as it had been hardened when she'd first left Lorien. She would not let anyone break that now, not again.

She would die, and she would die alone.

"_The sooner the better"_ She had thought as she ran one of the blades through an orc's middle.

Death was her only answer. She vaguely remembered throwing Uruk-hai over the walls, breaking their ladders, breaking their skulls against the bricks. She plunged recklessly into the swarming mass of orcs as they tried to make their way to the keep. She'd killed Uruk-hai until just before the dawn had broken, even though they had over run most of the fortress. Just as the sky had turned a soft shade of gray in the early light, she blacked out.

She stared at the sky and felt the gentle warmth of early spring wash over her tired body. It was early afternoon and eerily silent but she couldn't bring herself to care about what had happened between dawn and now.

She looked to her left and gazed into the cold, dull eyes of a young boy, no more than fifteen years old. His face had taken on a sickly gray shade, his mouth pressed in a grim, brave line. Intara sighed. He had seen none of the world. How could she live on and on and one so young, one with so much hope, die?

Why should she, without hope, live on?

She closed her eyes and turned her head to the right. Every bone popping loudly against the stiffness. When she opened her eyes she was gazing face to face with an Uruk-hai. She jumped slightly, the permanent snarl on the creature's face slightly unnerving her. She did not move much as a burning sensation tore through her body. She moved her hand down along her side until she found the broken blade embedded in the chain of her armor. She looked at the creature's hand where the other half of the sword was held. She clamped her jaw and grasped the bit of steel in her hands to pull it out. She felt blood pour out of the wound and make her fingers slick with it. Slowly she sat up and looked around her.

She could not see the battlement for all the bodies that riddled the walls. Pennants snapped in the morning breeze, seeming to dance with the smoke that also blew in the wind. She pulled herself unsteadily to her feet and looked out over the field.

Uruk-hai littered the valley. Fires burned and the men of Rohan were hard at work pulling the corpses of the Uruk-hai into them.

_Did we win?_

Her mind was slow to function and her thoughts danced from the fires below to Haldir and to her own existence. Intara staggered through the corpses slowly, occasionally stopping beside a fallen archer and staring at the plaintive face of an elf taken from the world, eyes locked on the sky but with none of the light of their people shining in them. She came to the spot where she thought Haldir might have been, but could not find him. She hoped the Uruk-hai had not taken his body.

She staggered across the Hornburg, avoiding the confused and shocked stares of the few people lingering among the dead. Intara kept her eyes locked on the fortress above her and moved on. She knew they were questioning how she had managed to survive and why she should live and their loved ones should fall.

The agonized cries of men echoed in the vaulted halls of the keep and Intara stayed focused on the sound. She needed to get there in order to find supplies to mend the gash in her side. The wounded lay in the roadway, some moved slowly relying on their comrades or their women to support them. Some hobbled proudly by on make shift crutches. Intara did not make eye contact and went into the keep.

She saw a healer standing to the side of the room talking with a few women.

"_Obviously"_ Intara _thought "Look at the blood on his clothes…."_

She approached him slowly and did not wait for his conversation (which was trivial at best) to come to an end.

"Have you horse hair?"

"This is Rohan…of course we have horse hair." He answered without looking at her.

"Then give me a few strands and that hooked needle." Intara demanded as she nodded at a tray behind him.

"If you need patching up, get in line." He nodded at the wall of men who still had yet to be tended to. By the stench, Intara reckoned that half of them were already dead. If they weren't, then they were close to it. She grew angry. Why should this man be allowed to shirk his duties as a healer in order to speak with the two pretty maids about the coming of the spring? She took a calming breath before speaking again.

"Give me the horse hair and that hooked needle and I'll do it myself." She repeated as she stepped closer to the man. "Or shall I sew your mouth shut?" The man's eyes widened and he grabbed the hooked needle and a few strands of boiled horse hair from a bowl.

"Here." He said thrusting the items at her. He watched, wide eyed as she moved away into the shadows and disappeared like a specter.

* * *

Intara stripped out of her armor slowly, appraising dents and punctures, assessing whether they could be repaired or not. The mail on her armor had been bent and several of the finely woven rings had been severed. The blade of the Uruk-hai had obviously been sharp enough to break the weld on the rings and press into the delicate flesh on her side. Her shirt was ripped and stained a dirty brown. A V shaped sweat stain ran down her spine and where she'd been cut, a large rusty blossom of blood was spreading. She lifted the edge of her shirt and tied it just high enough so she could see the wound in her side.

It wasn't quite as bad as she'd thought. It was a shallow cut, but in the worst place possible; just below her last rib, it was where she moved and flexed the most. She could see indentations where the rings of mail had pressed into her skin, causing superficial cuts in addition to the gash from the sword. She saw a basin of water with rags in it and grabbed one up before anyone could say something. She gingerly washed the dried blood away and cursed as her side seeped blood anew. She twisted the rag and bit down as she pushed the thick needle through her skin and drew the two sides of the cut together. The first push was the worst; she had discovered that long ago. She spit the rag out and kept stitching. Slowly, she felt the two sides of the cut come together. It was tedious and she often had to stop as a wave of nausea flooded over her.

She looked up as heavy doors swung open and Legolas and Gimli, followed by several members of the Rohirrim came out. They stood about just outside the doorway as the doors swung shut behind them with a dull thud. She watched the Mirkwood elf move slowly, a distasteful look on his face as he moved amongst the wounded. A blonde Rohan woman went to him and they spoke with one another for some time. Intara went back to her stitching. What did she care about the affairs of others?

* * *

Legolas sighed as he and Gimli looked at the destruction that had been wrought upon the people of Rohan. Aragorn and King Theoden were discussing certain issues in private.

They had ridden to Isengard earlier but had returned with nothing except a palantir and the two hobbits, Merry and Pippin. Saruman was locked away, isolated in his fortress and guarded by the ents. He'd be going nowhere any time soon.

Eowyn came forward and spoke to him, but he really didn't pay her much attention. He did not feel like carrying on an idle conversation when his heart was so heavy with grief. Legolas let his eyes drift as Eowyn went to speak with her brother.

So many had fallen yesterday; Haldir of Lorien among them. He and Aragorn had gone out before they'd left for Isengard and retrieved the body so it could be sent back to Lorien and laid to rest properly. Before they had left the high wall Aragorn had stood atop the battlements and looked at the fallen.

"It is not your fault Aragorn. They volunteered their lives for this task."

"I know." Aragorn shielded his eyes from the sun and looked at the thousands of bodies littering the Hornburg.

"You look for your cousin." Aragorn looked at the elf. It was not a question but a statement of fact and it irked Aragorn some that the elf had read him so easily.

"We must search for her body, Legolas." He answered after a time.

"We will, when we come back from Isengard." Legolas moved down the battlement, following the stretcher that bore Haldir. "We will all search when we come back later."

Now they were back, and they still hadn't made it out to the Hornburg to look for Intara. He did not know when they might make it out there and did not think they would make it out until tomorrow at the earliest. After that length of time, he wasn't even sure if her body would be recognizable. He did not want to dwell on the sorrow her death would deal to Aragorn after the loss of so many.

Movement in a corner caught Legolas's eye and he stared into the shadows. He clasped his hand on Gimli's shoulder and then moved towards the darkened alcove.

* * *

Intara looked up as the sparse amount of light in the alcove was abruptly cut off.

"You're in my light." She said looking up at Legolas.

"You should let a surgeon take care of that." Legolas said as she hooked the needle through her skin again and drew both sides together. Her fingertips were sticky with blood. He was sure it was her own, but dared not think on it.

"I don't need a surgeon." Intara grumbled through clenched teeth as the needle slid through her skin.

"Aragorn will want to see you." Intara grunted and ignored him as she finished stitching the gash in her side. She held the strands of horsehair tight as she looked around for a knife with which to cut the excess. Legolas drew one of his and handed it to her. She looked at him warily before taking it and cutting the horsehair.

"Is he well?" She asked as she leaned back against the cool stone wall behind her, taking a brief rest.

"He is." Legolas noticed the flatness of her voice and the dull look in her eyes. "You must be tired though, I'll have Eowyn find you a room and you can sleep…"

"I am well rested." Intara said sitting up again.

She reached for a roll of gauze and some lint that she packed the wound with before she bandaged the horrific gash. She slowly wound the bandage around her middle and covered the nasty cut. It would scar horribly, but Intara didn't care about that. She pulled her blouse down over her work and grabbed her discarded tunic. Her hands were caked in blood and in places her hair was matted with it. A heavy line of orc blood and what might have been brains ran beneath her chin and across her temple. Legolas grasped her arm and leaned as close to her as he could.

"You need to go clean yourself up before anyone else sees you. You're a mess." He said. "I only tell you this because now things are going to be happening much faster than any of us is ready for." Her eyes met his for a moment and then she looked down at herself.

Legolas was right. She was a wreck. The foul stench of orc rolled off of her and she felt slimy. She nodded her head slowly.

"I suppose you're right." Intara said. "A bath might not be a bad idea at all."

Legolas nodded and went off to convince Eowyn to prepare a room.

* * *

Even after a hot bath, Intara still felt dirty and cold. She didn't think it would be possible for her to feel warm again.

As she dried her hair out and looked at the tub of water she saw that it was black and murky. She didn't know it was possible for her body to have so much foulness on it. But she wasn't sure she had even gotten rid of it all, in spite of the way the water looked. She donned her simple ranger garb and went out into the corridor without looking in the mirror.

She went back to the main room and found Legolas waiting for her.

"Well, that's a vast improvement. At least you don't smell like orc anymore."

"I don't feel improved." Intara answered coldly. "Now where is Aragorn?"

As if waiting for her question, a door swung open behind her and a weary looking Aragorn came striding though it. He stopped cold and stared at her for a moment before rushing forward and grasping her arms, looking her over in disbelief.

"Shadow? Shadow, you're alive?!?" She stared into his gray eyes, not trusting her voice to answer her. She was _alive_, but she did not wish to _live_. He pulled her into a tight embrace that she did not return. She whimpered slightly as he squeezed the place she had stitched herself earlier. He pulled away and looked at her.

"Say something Intara…please?"

"What? What can I say?" She whispered, her face twisted as she tried to pull away from Aragorn. She grasped her side as she thought she'd probably have to re-stitch her wound.

"Are you injured? What happened?"

"I am not hurt grievously. And I'm not sure what happened." She looked down between them. "I don't remember much after …." She bit her lip and looked back into his eyes. "It doesn't matter though."

King Theoden came through the door Aragorn had just exited and was speaking quietly with Gandalf. Intara didn't believe her eyes. She shook her head and stepped away from Aragorn before drawing her sword.

"Intara, what's the matter with you?" Rohirrim soldiers surrounded the King as Aragorn tried to keep his cousin from being impaled by the men. "Intara, put down your sword!"

"It's the white wizard! What's he doing here?" Intara asked looking from Aragorn back to Gandalf.

"Aragorn, I think I know what is happening." Gandalf said calmly as he pushed past two of the soldiers. "I take it you told her of my fall?"

Intara's brow furrowed as she tried to understand what was happening.

"I did." Aragorn said.

"But did you tell her of my return?" The wizard said, mirth spilling into his voice in spite of the gravity of the situation.

"It never came up…" Intara answered, eyes locked with Gandalf's. Aragorn turned quickly to Intara.

"Intara…"

"You died." She said coldly, without looking at Aragorn, gaze still centered on the wizard.

"I did. And now I've returned." Gandalf said stepping close. "I'm back as Gandalf the White."

Intara stepped back quickly, keeping Gandalf at sword point. "You are a trick sent from Saruman. He is the White wizard!"

"No. Saruman has lost favor." Gandalf locked his eyes with hers. "Look deep inside yourself, Intara. What does your heart tell you?"

"You have no right to ask that." Intara whispered. "My heart is dead."

"Intara, look inside yourself. Look into my eyes and believe…."

Slowly, she lowered the sword and stared at the old istari. "How did you do it?" She asked weakly. "How were you able to come back?"

"I know not myself. Only that a higher power had a hand in it." Intara sheathed her sword and bowed her head.

"Forgive me. I should not have acted in such a brash manner."

"Do not worry. All is forgiven." Gandalf said as he put his hand on her shoulder. "You have had a trying day child…go and rest. We will be able to catch up in time."

Theoden and Gandalf moved away, followed by Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. Intara remained where she stood. A shaft of golden light descended to her right from a skylight in the ceiling and illuminated the polished floor. So much had changed….she was not sure she was ready to face it.

* * *

Intara stood on the battlements of Helm's Deep for the last time. She'd be going to Medusaled with the other members of the fellowship and the rest of the court. She stood looking out over the plains as the soldiers continued to burn orc corpses and families started the return journey to their homes.

"You wonder if I could bring him back. You wonder if there is something you could do." Intara turned into the wind, allowing it to whip through her tangled hair. Gandalf had come up behind her and she stared at the old man with defeated eyes. "It is useless Intara, it was his time."

"When is it my time?" She asked abruptly. "What is it that I am failing to do?" Her brow furrowed deeply.

"When is it any of our times?" He heard her sniffle and a tear trickled down her cheek.

"Is it because I failed to protect my mother? Or my Uncle? Or my cousins?" She asked, her voice growing shriller with each question. "Is it because I spent so many years picking fights and trying to get myself killed? Is it because I did nothing to save him? What is it that I have done so wrong?"

"You have done nothing wrong, Intara." Gandalf said as he stepped closer to her. Her back straightened as he grasped her arm in a fatherly gesture. "I think your rest is close at hand. The war for Middle Earth has just begun." She looked into the old man's eyes, a flicker of hope in the dull emerald depths. One last tear trickled down her face.

"Do you promise?" She asked, her voice barely audible above the brisk breeze.

"A wizard never promises…things happen as they're meant to in spite of what we might say or do." He smiled when she scowled at him. If she had still harbored doubts as to his identity, they were gone now. He patted her arm and then moved back down the stairs. "Whenever you're ready, we are prepared to leave." The wizard's voice echoed back to her and she followed soon after.

* * *

The elves were returning to Lorien, bearing their dead. Haldir had been washed of all blood and laid out on a cart. Intara walked past him and looked down at his calm face. He looked as if he were asleep, and that at any moment he would rise up and take her into his arms. Tentatively she reached out and touched the cold skin on the back of his hand, half expecting it to be warm. The breeze sighed through the keep and seemed to carry with it a deep voice murmuring

"_Very soon, meleth. Very soon, you and I shall be together again."_

Intara stepped away from the corpse and mounted the horse she'd been given. She kept her eyes locked ahead and did not look back. She did not wish to see the sad procession of elves with their carts of the dead.

It was time to move on.


	11. No Rest

Intara stood on the steps of the Golden Hall at Edoras. Merry and Pippin had tried to regale her with their tales of bravery in Fangorn and of their time with the Ents. She'd listened and acknowledged, but hadn't taken any joy in it. She could not manage to have a good time when her heart still ached dully in her chest. A roar of laughter came out through the open doors and someone started singing loudly and drunkenly. Intara would not begrudge them their victory over Saruman. These people had fought and died and lost much. She just didn't think she ought to join in. There was no joy in her heart, only anger, hatred and the desire for revenge. She wanted to kill Saruman, she wanted to destroy Sauron, and she wanted to avenge the death of her friends and family. She had finally become convinced that it was Sauron who brought the darkness to her life.

Legolas moved from the shadows and stood in the moonlight beside her.

"You feel it, don't you?"

"He's on the move. Sauron's army…"

"I believe so." Legolas glanced at the dark woman beside him, bathed in shadows and dressed in her ranger garb, she looked like a wraith. "Your heart died with Haldir didn't it…."

"My heart is not your affair." The woman stalked away into the deeper shadows and away from the elf who stood, taught as a bow string, in the starlight.

* * *

Gandalf and Pippin had left for Gondor. She had stood beside the stall as Gandalf had explained his reason for going to Gondor. Denethor must be forced to ask Rohan for help since Rohan would not offer themselves willingly to the insane steward.

"Take Intara with you at least." Aragorn pleaded. "She'd be an extra set of eyes…"

"I need no extra set of eyes. I will travel much faster on Shadowfax than she'd be able to ride on any other horse in all of Middle Earth. No, you take Intara with you," Gandalf had said as he swung into the saddle, his gray eyes rested kindly on her. "I believe she'll be able to help you much more than she'll be able to help me."

Merry had run up the stairs, forcing his way past the watchmen. Aragorn hot on his trail. Intara followed at a much leisurely pace. When she arrived at the top of the tower, Aragorn and Merry were concentrating on nothing more than a white speck on the horizon. Soon, even that disappeared over a distant hill.

And now they waited. She closed her eyes and yawned deeply. It had been nearly a full week and a watch had been set to keep an eye on the distant mountain peaks, waiting for the flame of the beacon that Intara was sure would never come. She had been up all night before, waiting, but the beacons had not burst forth. It was Gandalf's hope that Denethor would order the beacons to be lit, and Rohan and Gondor would join forces.

Mid stretch she heard someone running quickly through the city. She opened her eyes and watched as Aragorn sprinted up the steps and into the hall. Looking at a distant mountain peak, she saw a slight flicker of flame. She sat up straighter as the light grew brighter on the peak. The beacon had been lit.

"_Cunning old man….I wonder what he did to convince that madman to do it…"_

She went up the stairs slowly and arrived in the hall of the King in time to hear Aragorn give his report.

"Gondor calls for aid." The court milled about with baited breath as Theoden pondered his answer.

"Rohan will answer." He answered, a determined glint in his eye. "Summon the Rohirrim."

* * *

"Who is she?" Eomer asked of Aragorn as they left Edoras. "That woman from the keep?"

"She is my cousin." Aragorn said with a sigh as he watched Intara pick her way through the rocks above where the rest of the army rode. "She's a…solitary being."

"Eowyn said she fought at the Hornburg?" Aragorn nodded. "Rather extraordinary for a woman."

"She is an extraordinary woman. To say less would be an insult to her."

"From where does she hail?" Eomer asked, still following her with his eyes. She was a mystery to all of Rohan. People had seen her arrive with the elves and had thought she was an elf herself. She had taken a position on the wall with the rest of the men, and had supposedly fought valiantly up until the falling of the deeping wall. She had been feared dead. The wall had been overtaken by orcs, but apparently she'd fought on, alone. The next afternoon she'd arrived at the keep looking for surgical supplies and had accosted one of their surgeons in order to get them. She had wandered the Keep like a ghost until they had left for Edoras. No one knew who she was, where she hailed from or her purpose. Eomer turned his attention back to Aragorn who was answering his question.

"Somewhere near the sea; her village no longer exists." Aragorn turned to the Marshall. "Her story is hers to tell while she still lives to tell it. But she tells it to very few, so I wouldn't press your luck." He kicked his horse forward to stop the flow of questions from the other man's mouth.

* * *

Intara moved around the edge of Dunharrow while the rest of the upper ranking military and the fellowship made their way through it. She did not wish to stay on the high lofts and desired to find a place where she could be alone. She found just such a place in the camp where no man or horse seemed to want to go. Deep in the shadows, it was the perfect place for her to reflect and prepare for the coming battle.

* * *

The camp was eerily quiet. Intara watched over all from her place by the Dimholt Road, for she had found out that's what the place was called. Fires glowed softly and illuminated tents and cast forboding shadows up the steep and rocky walls of the mountain. It was calm; all knew that battle was upon them. Intara watched as a heavily cloaked figure made their way through the camp, without being acknowledged and made their way up the path to the high tents. Intara was curious but did not follow. She knew if it was grievous, she'd find out about it soon enough.

Within an hour, she knew what had transpired, for Aragorn made ready to leave and she followed suit. She waited at the mouth of the narrow road and watched as he came forward on Brego, and Legolas and Gimli rode together on another horse.

"You as well?" Aragorn said when he saw her mount.

"Of course. Elrond trusted me to ride after you and represent Rivendell. I go forth now to make sure you don't do anything stupid." Aragorn smirked, but did not say anything as she fell into step behind the other two horses and together they went into the mountains.

They rode throughout the night, and even when the sky was colored with the first rays of dawn, they continued to ride in cold shadows. By mid afternoon they had arrived at the gate.

"The way is shut. It was made by those that are dead. The way is shut." Legolas read from the door. A foul wind emanated from the hole in the wall and the horses reared and spooked, heading back for safety.

"Damn horses…." Intara muttered as she watched hers gallop away ahead of the other two. "Unreliable creatures all of them."

"Still bitter after all these years?" Legolas asked. He'd heard the story before, of how her horse had allowed her to fall into the Loudwater River and she had first been introduced to Rivendell. He also knew she'd trusted few horses since then. She glared at him but did not give him an answer. Gimli chuckled seeing the elf shut down so handily.

Aragorn stood staring into the blackness of the mountain and took several steadying breaths.

"I do not fear death." Aragorn said after drawing his sword. He lunged into the cavern and disappeared.

"I welcome it." Intara breathed as she drew her own sword and followed Aragorn in. She heard Legolas come in behind her and then Gimli. There was no turning back now.

* * *

They came out into an open space, faintly lit in the dank light of the mountain. The whole place smelled of death and rot. Intara looked around at the barren walls and wondered what kind of army could survive in such a place.

"Who enters my domain?" Intara turned, sword drawn towards a place where a man had materialized out of the stairs. His skin hung off his face and hands, his eyes, a milky white.

"One who would have your allegiance." Aragorn answered, squaring his shoulders towards the specter.

"The dead do not suffer the living to pass."

"You WILL suffer me." Aragorn answered. The specter laughed deeply, a watery sound that echoed across the hallow cavern. Intara turned to see a city materialize out of the rocks. A chill ran up her spine as thousands upon thousands of spectral soldiers oozed across the chasm and hemmed them in.

"The way is shut. It was made by those who are dead, and the dead keep it. The way is shut!" The lead specter chanted as it strolled towards where Aragorn stood. "Now you must die."

Legolas drew his bow and fired a shot through the forehead of one of the specters that now had them surrounded. Intara grasped his arm and shook her head. She saw one of the specters start to move towards them, as if to attack, but put herself between the two members of the fellowship and the threat.

"I summon you to fulfill your oath!" That angered the being before them and he moved faster towards Aragorn. Intara held her ground and her breath.

"None but the King of Gondor may command me!" The ghost general swung his big broadsword at Aragorn but was blocked with a parry. Aragorn swept the spectral blade away. He grasped the throat of his attacker giving him a good look at the blade. "That blade was broken!"

"It has been remade!" Aragorn moved away. "Fight for us and regain your honor. What say you?" He challenged the ghosts. Intara saw him now, not as her cousin, or even as a fellow ranger, but as the kingly figure he had been born to be. "I am Isildur's heir. Fight for me and I will hold our oaths fulfilled! What say you?"

They were met with silence.

"How do we know you won't go back on your word? Men are notoriously untrustworthy." The voice floated on the still air in the cavern. The lead spirit, who had been doing most of the talking up until now, nodded.

"Yes. How do we know you will honor your pledge and release us when our service is done?"

"You have my word. Is that not enough?"

"No." The ghost shook his head. "We require…collateral." If it was possible for the phantom to grin, Intara thought he did so then. His milky eyes settled on her where she still stood between him, and the other fellowship members. Softly spoken words floated through the cavern and a large gust of wind whipped through the cave and nearly knocked Aragorn and Legolas to their knees. Gimli's beard covered his eyes and he scrambled to pull it back down, lest he be unawares when the attack came.

Intara stared the ghost down, waiting for him to attack when the wind suddenly stopped and the room again became silent.

"Intara…" Legolas breathed as he stared at her. Intara turned to him and then looked at her feet where her body lay.

"What is the meaning of this?" Aragorn asked coming forward. Intara looked back to the specter.

"Am I dead?"

"One question at a time." The creature laughed. "When you release us, we shall release her." He said to Aragorn. Intara nearly laughed. Then she _was_ dead…they had done what no one else had done in a thousand years. To Intara he said "We have merely disembodied your spirit. If he does not release us when the time comes, you will not return to your body, your spirit will be brought here, and we will torture you until the end of days. You will find no rest. Your body could be desecrated, but your soul would find no peace." He turned back to Aragorn. "Do we have an arrangement?"

"You have my word." Aragorn answered quickly.

"Aragorn no!" Intara said rushing forwards, her speed escalated by a lack of body.

"It is done!" The old soldier shouted. "Prepare to march, our king leads us on!"

* * *

"I'm sorry." Intara said to Legolas.

He was carrying her body through the narrow walkways that led to the exit of the mountain.

"You aren't heavy." He said. "How are you?"

"It didn't hurt, if that's what you're asking. I've been through much worse." They turned a narrow corner and heard Gimli grunt and struggle to get through.

"You were close to Haldir, were you not?" Legolas asked. Intara fell silent, the glow from her spirit casting shadows on Legolas's face and making him look nearly skeletal. She nodded.

"We knew each other long ago, in Lorien." She focused her eyes on his. "I mourn his passing every day." Intara became nearly transparent as sunlight poured into the tunnel ahead of her. The ghostly army spilled out of the mountain and over the land, waiting for Aragorn to emerge.

"How is she?" Aragorn asked Legolas as he looked down at the body of his cousin.

"I'm fine." Intara answered. Aragorn looked shaken. His cousin's lifeless body lay before him and yet she was right beside him carrying on a conversation. "You have to lead us Aragorn. No one else can." He nodded before climbing up on a rock and looking out over the vast mass of green that was his new army.

"Corsairs from the south are sailing up river. They plan to attack Osgiliath and the City of Gondor. Men from Rohan, and Rangers from the North have combined forces at Dunharrow. They are not enough to defeat the army of Sauron, they will not survive the added threat of the corsairs."

"What are your orders, my king?"

"We make for the river, take over the ships, and flank the orc army. They will be expecting reinforcements, they will find only death." A raspy cheer went up through the ranks and the host moved to the river.

* * *

The attack on the boats had gone very well, better than Intara could have hoped. She was slowly getting used to the lack of a body and the ease of movement that came with it. She was not impeded by her shoulder at all, her old scars did not hurt and her newest did not burn or chafe as it had before. She was faster than when she had a body and she had the added bonus of belonging to a host that no man could stop, for who could kill that which was already dead?

She went below decks to the cabin where Legolas had laid her body. She stared at it for some time taking in her own features.

For the first time she noticed how tired she looked. How thin and drawn her skin was. Deep circles rested beneath her eyes. Her hair was matted and tangled and spilled over the bed like ink through water. Her lips were thin and pale and cold. How could Haldir have loved someone like that? The thought ghosted through her mind so quickly that she did not have a chance to dwell on it. Gimli thumped down the stairs behind her and she turned away from the shell of what she'd formerly been.

"Lass…we are almost to Osgiliath. Aragorn asked me to fetch you."

"I'm coming." She glided up the stairs behind Gimli and out into the sunlight.

"You cast no shadow…and you glow far too brightly to hide in one." Aragorn said. "It looks like you'll have to come up with a new name."

"You too will have a new name…no more will you be Strider." Intara said she saw him crack a smile but went back to a somber face as he faced her. "What is your plan?"

"I want you to stay here and defend the ships." Aragorn said, but was stopped when Intara growled.

"I will fight. I will not be kept back here."

"You could be…."

"Killed? You can not kill that which is already dead." She dropped her voice to the lowest whisper possible and stood closer to Aragorn. "Even were I flesh and bone, I would not stay behind for that would still hold true. Do not ask me to stay behind."

"Intara, I know your heart is deeply troubled by the passing of Haldir."

"Do not talk to me about Haldir." She hissed angrily. "Your love lives on. You will return to her and…"

"Arwen is dying." Aragorn said quickly turning back to the river. Intara gasped and let her hand hover over his shoulder…she didn't think she could actually touch him. "When Elrond brought me Anduril, he told me that she is ill with the shadow that Sauron has spread over the land. She will die unless the ring is destroyed."

"Why did she not make for the havens?" Intara asked. "Why does Elrond not send her away?"

"She is too ill to travel. He said that he sent her away before and she returned. She refused to leave."

"This is my fault." Aragorn looked at his cousin and shook his head, but she continued. "No it is…years ago I told her that she could do anything she desired….that she could do anything a man could. She disobeyed her father because of me."

"Intara, do not hold yourself accountable for that."

"If she dies, I will hold myself accountable." Intara said.

"You were not responsible for Haldir's death." Intara flinched and looked up at him "You will not be responsible for Arwen's. Now, if it is your desire, you will accompany us. Follow the lead of the others since I'm not exactly sure how it is they plan on fighting." He smirked again. "Some leader, I can't even _lead_ my own army because I don't know how they fight."

"You're doing a fine job." Intara moved off with the other spirits and prepared the boats for docking at Osgiliath.


	12. True to Form

When the boats arrived at Osgiliath, Aragorn's was first to the dock. He, Legolas and Gimli were hunkered down beneath the rail as the ship came to a creaking halt in front of the city. Aragorn looked to his comrades and signaled for them to be still.

"Late as usual! Get off those stinking ships…there's knife work needs doing down here!"

"If he insists…" Aragorn said with a smirk. He leapt from the deck of the ship, followed by Gimli and Legolas. The three of them stood on the dock and stared casually at the orcs in front of them.

"There's plenty for the both of us…may the best dwarf win!" Gimli muttered as the three of them charged the orcs, the great green host disembarking behind them.

The ghosts tore through the river city as if the bonds of earth had no claim on them. They burst on to the field of battle and obliterated company after company of orcs. Intara paid no heed to the bodies of the horses and Rohirrim scattered about. It didn't matter to her as long as this army died today. Intara was amazed as she saw the ghosts overrun one of the great oliphants and slaughter everyone on board. The cave trolls were next and then more orcs. A deep swatch was cut through the ranks of Sauron's army. Rohirrim and Rangers stopped and watched as their enemies were cut down by the ethereal green haze.

For the first time Intara felt as if it were vital she remain with the rest of the host. There was strength to be had in numbers and the solitary fighting style of a ranger was just not going to work in this environment. She relished the feeling of belonging and took satisfaction in every drop of blood spilled.

* * *

The battlefield fell silent except for the occasional groans of the wounded and dying. It was done. The army of the dead had poured into the city, killing all of the orcs that had invaded. Once they were sure every last orc had been killed, they filed out slowly, some looking up at the white walls of Minas Tirith and remembering when they had once lived in the homes with their families. From the highest level of the city, it looked as if a green mist had amassed on the Palenor fields.

Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli stood in awe as the army of the dead stood near them and grew silent themselves.

"Release us." The leader breathed. Intara moved forward and stood beside him looking at Aragorn.

"I wouldn't do that." Gimli said quickly. "They're very handy in a tight spot, despite them being dead." The leader growled suddenly.

"You gave us your word!" He shouted, he took a step towards Intara and lifted her above his head, crushing her windpipe in his strong hand. "We told you what would occur if you broke it!" Intara kicked her feet trying to free herself from the ghost's hold as she felt his fingers dig into her throat.

"I hold your oaths fulfilled." Aragorn said quickly as he stepped forward. The ghost stopped and slowly lowered Intara back to the ground. "Be at peace." The ghost general stared at Aragorn for a moment before grinning slightly.

"You are an honorable man Aragorn, son of Arathorn." The old general said, inclining his head. A breeze blew softly across the battlefield and dissolved the host before their eyes.

"What of Intara!?" Aragorn said stepping forward and shouting at the general as he began to fade. "You said you would release her!"

"And so she shall be…." The voice sighed on the breeze. A harsher wind blew back across the field and kicked up piles of dirt, lashing at the skin of anyone standing too close.

Intara suddenly screamed. It felt as if she were being pulled in a thousand directions. She dropped to her knees, eyes wide and staring at the boat where her body lay. A strong pull from that direction violently yanked at her. She latched onto the grass beneath her still ghostly fingertips and stared up at Aragorn.

"There is someone there…" She screamed again as the pulling sensation grew stronger, feeling as if it would draw her inside out.

"Legolas, go!" Aragorn and Legolas raced across the field to where the boats still sat dockside. A keening filled the air around them and passed by on the strong breeze at their backs.

"We'll never make it!" Aragorn began to despair. If someone was on the boat with Intara, they might try to destroy her body. Her spirit would then be forced to wander Middle Earth forever and she'd never find the rest that she so desired. He'd never forgive himself if that happened.

"I will." Legolas put on an extra burst of speed and seemed to fly over the ground. In a moment he was little more than a speck darting through the streets of Osgiliath.

* * *

Legolas leapt aboard the ship, bow drawn and arrow knocked, and raced down to the cabin where he had placed Intara's body earlier.

Intara felt the first burning breath of air fill her un-used lungs and she opened her eyes, coughing. Above her was the shocked face of an orc. Frightened it raised its short sword to kill the woman, but she was faster. She fumbled with her own knife for a moment before she drove it into its neck and watched as it drew one final, gurgling breath and died beside the bed. Legolas came down the stairs to the cabin in time to see the creature fall and saw Intara breathing heavily on the bed, as if she had run the distance between the battlefield and the ship and not he.

"Intara?" She coughed in response and flopped heavily back on the bed. She felt heavy and slow and found it difficult to sit up. Legolas rushed to her side and helped her rise slowly. "Are you alright?"

"Well enough." She whispered. Aragorn's heavy footfalls sounded on the deck above them and he leapt into the cabin to see the dead orc beside Intara's bed.

"_Diola lle, _Legolas."

"I did nothing." Legolas said. "It was she…"

"I'm too stubborn to allow for any help." She coughed again. Her words seemed slurred and thick, as if she were recovering from a stroke. She shook her head clearing it of the cobwebs that clouded her mind.

"How do you feel?" Aragorn asked as he knelt before her. She swayed slightly before answering.

"Heavy….slow." She almost fell backwards, but Aragorn grasped her arm and kept her upright. "Weighted down and most of all, dizzy."

"Let's get her off the boat." Aragorn looked to Legolas who picked the woman up and carried her off the ship.

"I want to walk." She whispered against the elf's shoulder. She did not want to appear weak.

"You can't. You said yourself that you felt heavy and dizzy…a combination that would make it difficult for you, I'm sure." Aragorn said. They found a cart in Osgiliath and managed to find a wandering horse to hitch to it. Aragorn led the horse towards Minas Tirith and began to assess the damage that the orcs had wrought on _his_ city.

* * *

It took Intara the better part of a day to regain her senses. Just as it had taken her time to get used to the weightless feeling of being without a body, it was taking her time to get used to the feeling of being confined to a body again. She forced the healers away from her and insisted on walking about the city and up to the top of the citadel where she knew Aragorn and Gandalf were. As she went along she gathered bits and pieces of what had happened before her arrival on the river and that now, with Aragorn's return, Minas Tirith had a rekindled hope.

Aragorn berated her for being out of bed so soon. She waited until he was finished telling her the hazard's of going against the advice of the healers and then spoke her mind.

"Of the two of us, Aragorn, who is the eldest?"

"Well, you are…but…"

"Enough said then." Intara walked away slowly, her left leg dragging still from where she'd been hurt in the mountains before Lorien. He shook his head and followed her into the throne room.

She reclined against the stairs at the base of the throne of Gondor while Gimli sat smoking in the Stewards chair.

The assemblage before her looked as if every race of the free peoples of Middle Earth had been assembled to the city of Minas Tirith. Legolas was representing the elves and Gimli the dwarves. Aragorn stood for the men of Gondor and Eomer for Rohan. Eomer was standing in the place of his uncle, King Theoden as the monarch had fallen during the battle. Intara had heard a few rumors that his niece, Eowyn, had slain the witch king of agmar in order to prevent him from slaying the king, but the king had sustained injuries far too great in the battle and died anyway. They were only rumors though and Intara wasn't sure she could believe them. Merry and Pippin were chatting animatedly about the past battle and were the only hobbits present. Gandalf paced back and forth across the white marble floors muttering to himself. Intara watched as they all spoke about the events that had led them to stand where they were. In all of it, she wasn't quite sure where she figured into it. Everyone else had their place, but where was hers? Was she for the elves of Rivendell? Perhaps she was more aligned with the Rangers of the north…or what of the lands to the west and the place of her birth? It troubled her slightly that she didn't know. She was gratefully distracted from her thoughts when the conversation turned to what they were to do now.

"I say we let him rot." Gimli's head was ringed with smoke and Intara smirked. The dwarf was happy and had plenty of mead to drink and weed for his pipe. He didn't care about much else in the near future.

"What of Frodo?" Gandalf asked. "He is still on the road to Mount Doom. Ten thousand Orcs stand between him and the mountain."

"Were I him, I'd be hoping for a distraction." Intara spoke slowly and softly, not sure of her place in this council of war. "Something to draw the attention of the orcs and divert the gaze of Sauron."

Gandalf muttered something that Intara could not hear.

"She's right." Aragorn said. "There is still hope for Frodo. He needs time... and safe passage across the plains of Gorgoroth. We can give him that."

"How?" Gimli said still puffing away on his pipe. Intara slid further away from the dwarf fearing that he might ignite as the smoke grew denser.

"Draw out Sauron's armies. Empty his lands. Then we gather our full strength and march on the Black Gate." Aragorn looked to the others in the room, trying to convince them of his idea. Gimli almost choked.

"We cannot achieve victory through strength of arms." Eomer said, a sour look passing across his face. "It would be suicide."

"Sometimes, victory for all must mean a suicidal act by one." Intara said rising slowly to her feet as she joined the circle.

"A diversion." Legolas said nodding.

"Sauron will expect a trap…he will not take the bait." Gandalf sided with Eomer. He knew that Frodo's quest depended on getting across Gorgoroth, but was not sure that the sacrifice of thousands of men was the answer.

"Certainty of death, small chance of success…what are we waiting for?" All turned to look at the dwarf who still puffed passively on his pipe. "Luck would seem to be on our side thus far."

* * *

Aragorn called Intara to the room he'd been given two nights later.

"I know you won't stay behind. I know it is futile." He said grinning.

"That's good. Even if you asked me to stay here, you know I'd follow."

"And if I ordered you?" He stood on his balcony and wouldn't face her. Intara shrugged.

"It isn't your place to order me. I am not a servant of Gondor, I am a servant of the Lord Elrond."

Aragorn nodded and turned back towards her. "Go to the armory and get yourself some armor."

"No." Aragorn turned back to face her as she stood defiantly at the door. "I'll not wear the white tree of Gondor."

"Intara, don't be so obstinate." Aragorn said as he came closer. "That is a foolish notion to carry about before going into battle. You can't go in unprotected!"

"I'll wear the other armor. It's still good except for the place where the male is dented and cut. I'll have it repaired on the morrow." Impulsively she reached out and touched her cousin's arm. "I will not wear the colors of Gondor. I am not of the city."

"I just want you to be protected in battle."

"I will be. Do not worry for me so. There are far bigger things for you to be concerned with than my safety." She moved off and disappeared in to get her armor.

* * *

Diola lle—Thank you 


	13. The Final Battle

**A/N:** Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but between graduation, the holidays and blizzards, and a few technical difficulties, I've been more than a little preoccupied. Happy New Year to everyone out there.

* * *

Intara rode behind Aragorn who was newly bedecked in the colors of Gondor. He wore new armor, the white tree of Gondor spread across his strong chest, and he sat tall in the saddle, beneath which was a fresh war horse. For the first time, she noticed how long his hair had gotten since the beginning of their journey so many months before in Bree. No longer did he look like Strider, the ragged Ranger. He looked like the King he was born to be. Intara's chest swelled with pride knowing that he would do their families proud by taking on his destiny even if she could not have hers.

Legolas and Gimli were to her right and behind her rode Eomer, with Merry behind him, dressed as a squire of Rohan. Merry had proven himself in battle by helping Eowyn during her fight with the witch king. Pippin was with Gandalf. Gandalf was a small dot of white in a long line of navy, green and black. Pippin was riding in front of him dressed as a guard of the citadel. Pippin had also acted valiantly in battle and had helped save Faramir from his father's dementia. The little hobbits were oddly silent as the army moved into battle. Intara looked dull and out of place in the procession towards the black gates. It was how she wanted it.

Black pennants stirred in the breeze as the army of men marched for Mordor. Something in her made her look back at Minas Tirith, the great white citadel sitting tall at the base of the mountains. It truly was a site to behold.

Rumil's words sounded in her mind and she decided that when everything was done, she would return to Minas Tirith and spend some time there instead of moving on right away. Perhaps she'd be able to find some of the rest and peace that had eluded her for so long within the cities high walls.

* * *

Late that night, Intara sat beside a small fire sharpening her sword to a razor's edge. She gazed into the fire and paid little attention to the task. She'd done it so many times, she thought she could probably do it in her sleep. She was deep in thought when a shadow entered the ring of light. She glanced up momentarily and saw Legolas standing on the opposite side of the fire from her.

"You hope to die tomorrow." It was not a question.

"I always hope to die. I hope that my purpose shall be fulfilled and I will be granted my peace." Intara answered as she flicked her finger against the edge of her sword.

"And if your time is not to end on the morrow?"

"Then I will go on, as I have done for many a year now."

"You do not have to go it alone." The only sound was the faint rasping of stone on blade and an occasional 'pop' from the fire.

"I am not at liberty to accept someone into my life, Prince of Mirkwood." She said as she flicked her thumb across the blade again. "My kind of life doesn't leave room for another."

"And your kind of life is?"

"One of darkness; one of anger." Intara's face took on a gruesome appearance in the fire. "Death follows me but never visits, Legolas. I am a weary traveler and I desire peace."

"I believe, that of any here…you deserve it." Legolas said with a bow. "May you find glory in battle tomorrow."

"You as well." Intara watched as the elf backed away from her circle of fire.

She hoped that she found more than glory in the coming battle.

* * *

The army commanded by Aragorn assembled before the gate, covering the hill and extending back the way they came.

"So how do we draw them out?" Pippin asked. "It isn't as if we could just march ourselves up to the gate and invite ourselves in for tea."

"That's exactly what we're going to do." Aragorn said. He nudged his horse forward and was followed by Gandalf and Pippin, Legolas and Gimli, and Eomer and Merry. Intara felt no need to get that close to Mordor. She would wait behind and be ready for whatever was going to happen.

Aragorn's voice echoed off the gate and carried across the plain to where Intara sat with the rest of the army. There was no reply but the heavy gate made a groaning sound and slowly it swung open, grating against the rock beneath it. As the opening widened, the challengers moved back and quickly took up their places in the ranks with the others. Aragorn turned his horse and rode along the ranks of men calling to them as they shifted uneasily. All of them were focused on the gate, and their first view of Mordor. A great black mass of orc and cave trolls---of all the evil of Middle Earth---flooded towards them through that opening.

"Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers!" Aragorn shouted. He made a pretty speech that Intara did not listen to. She stared at the lead of the army advancing on them. It was more terrifying seeing this army move towards her than the army had been at the Hornburg. Bathed in the reds and oranges of the fires of mount doom, the army advancing on them was cast in eerie shadows. Her heart shuddered in her chest as the cadence was beat out by the cave trolls.

Intara brought her gaze back to Aragorn as he stood right before her. "This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you STAND MEN OF THE WEST!"

They watched as the orcs continued to pour out of the gates and surrounded the men in the valley. Intara was uneasy and looked to Aragorn as his eyes swept the battlefield. The air grew still around them as they all took in a collective breath, preparing for the battle ahead.

A fell voice filled the air around them. Aragorn stepped forward as if listening to it. Intara shook her head. She could see Sauron in her mind, heard his voice. The great eye seemed to blink at her and she heard a dark laughter. She banished the vision and looked to where Aragorn turned to face them.

He looked to the remaining members of the fellowship, looking each of them in the eye and then turned his gaze on the rest of the combatants behind them. Then he whispered a single phrase.

"For Frodo."

He charged forth alone. Merry and Pippin were next followed by Gandalf. Intara drew her sword and rushed into the fray behind them.

* * *

It was by far one of the most intense battles Intara had ever found herself in. She decapitated one of the orcs in front of her and picked up a shield one of the Rohirrim had dropped. A large orc with a club bashed at her repeatedly, denting the shield on her arm. She swung back trying to batter the creature down, but it was too large. She hacked at its knee and then looked up to see an arrow protruding from it's forehead. The creature pitched backwards and fell dead. Intara threw down her destroyed shield and turned to see Legolas fighting on, his arrows finding their targets with ease. She caught his gaze and nodded before moving on.

Intara was drenched in sweat. It trickled in a sticky river down her back and matted her hair to her head beneath her helmet. Her arm was growing tired and her leg stiff.

She was knocked off her feet and thrown backwards, her helmet flying off. She hacked up into the orc with her sword and turned her head sideways as blood splattered across her face. She rose and let the wind pick up a few strands of her hair. She needed a break, but knew that she'd never find one in the melee. She swung up into an orc that ran past her and watched disgustedly as it writhed on the ground at her feet. She stomped on its face with one of her heavy boots and felt the creature's beak like nose crumble beneath the heel. She moved on.

* * *

A nazgul descended from the sky and made as if to pick up several of the men. Intara shouted a warning, but she didn't dare to hope that her voice would be heard above the cacophony of battle.

"The Eagles!" Pippin's voice sounded to her right and she turned to see the hobbit looking up into the sky. "The Eagles are coming!" And sure enough, a great shadow passed over the army and a huge eagle dug it's talons into the nazgul, keeping it away from the army. Intara looked back down to the fight at hand and saw Legolas rushing across the field to the carcass of a cave troll as it fell atop Gimli. Gandalf was defending himself with sword and staff, as the only figure clad in white, he was easy to spot. The hobbits were not to be seen in the melee as most of the combatants were taller than them.

Aragorn was also easy to spot in the commotion. His new garb gleamed in the sulfurous glow emitted from Mordor. His sword, Anduril, the blade that was remade from the shards of Narsil, seemed to glow with the magic the elves had worked into it. He fought with a grim determination against any creature that came into his reach. But that was not what truly caught Intara's attention.

It was the crimson lining of his cape.

A crimson lining that matched Haldir's cape.

Intara looked to where he was fighting two different orcs. She gazed across the battlefield and saw another orc rushing towards the fight. A fourth was knocking Rohirrim out of its way to clear a shot with a heavy bow.

She took it all in simultaneously. The din of battle roared around her and she knew that no matter how she shouted, no one would hear it.

She started to run, shoving everyone and everything out of her way. She dashed across the battlefield with all the speed she could muster. Aragorn beheaded one of the orcs he was fighting and turned his attention to the other. Intara didn't pay much attention though and continued her blind run across the battlefield, keeping one eye on the orc coming up behind Aragorn. She bashed the skull of an orc in as she rushed by him, shocking the Gondorian he was fighting. Intara was focused on the orc running at Aragorn, but a quick glance told her that even if she succeeded in preventing that orc from getting to Aragorn, the one with the bow was not going to fail. She only had one chance.

"_Sometimes, victory for all must mean a suicidal act by one."_

The thought tripped through her head as she barreled across the battlefield. She glanced over her shoulder to where the orc with the bow knelt and saw him release the arrow. She launched herself into the air, lowered her shoulder and bowled into Aragorn.

* * *

Aragorn landed on the ground, nearly dropping his sword, and wondered what had just happened. The world seemed to move in slow motion as he looked back to where he'd been standing moments before. Intara, still airborn, was bringing her blade into the neck of the orc that had been ready to kill him, it's huge, hooked blade held high above its gnarled head. The orc's blade came down into Intara's side, piercing the light weight armor and cutting into the flesh beneath the mail. Her body arched back as a huge black arrow pierced through her chest plate and she fell into the dust beside him. 


	14. Journey Home

A/N: Thanks for reading! Happy New Year All!

* * *

Aragorn watched as Intara's body fell to the ground beside his. The orc Intara had stabbed fell back, her blade still stuck in its neck. The other orc, the one with the bow, had been cut down by Eomer who rushed towards where the woman lay with the arrow sticking out from her chest.

Aragorn crawled forward and grasped her hand bringing her gaze to his. She gasped, coughed and looked up, a crooked grin on her face. Intara's fingers were covered with blood that seeped from the deep wound in her side, and her fingers slipped in his hand. Aragorn cradled her gently in his lap, brushing some of her dark hair away from her face as she took a rasping breath. Aragorn didn't know if he would be able to speak, but he knew he had to try.

"Why? Intara, what have you done?"

"The survival of all…sometimes depends…on the suicidal act…of one." She answered grinning slightly. Aragorn shook his head, shocked that she would have sacrificed herself for him. He was about to say something more when a sudden rumbling filled the air around them. Eomer skidded to a halt beside them and looked towards Mordor where a bright flash of light illuminated the sky. Intara and Aragorn followed his gaze and looked through the open gate to where Mount Doom exploded in a rain of fire and molten earth. The tower, atop which Suron's great eye perched, suddenly cracked and toppled over. Aragorn was awe struck as were most of the combatants around them.

"He did it." Intara whispered. "Frodo did it." More lava burst from Mount Doom and Intara heard Gandalf shout for one of the eagles to descend so that he could go look for the hobbit. "It is done…" Intara gritted her teeth and closed her eyes against the pain she was in as the earth rumbled beneath her. She smiled at Argorn in spite of it.

"It is done. We're going to get you help." Argorn whispered as Eomer knelt beside them. Aragorn tightened his grasp on Intara and held her close until aid could be sent for and she could be carried off the battlefield.

* * *

Aragorn paced outside a tent waiting for the surgeon to emerge. He was distracted when Gandalf landed with one of the Eagles, two others landing carefully behind him. Legolas and Aragorn rushed forward to see what the two eagles carried and were elated to see that it was Frodo and Sam.

"They are alive, but they are not out of the woods." Gandalf said to them. He and Legolas carried the two hobbits to the healer's tents.

"My king?" Aragorn looked up to where the healer that had been tending Intara had just emerged, wiping his hands on a blood soaked rag.

"How is she?" Aragorn asked, worry in his eyes.

"She is not well." The healer said. "I do not think she will survive the week." Aragorn brushed past the man and went into the tent where Intara was sleeping. He hovered at her bedside for a moment before pulling up a stool and grasping her hand in his. She was slow to rouse, but when she opened her eyes they were clear.

"Aragorn." Aragorn leaned forward, happy that she was awake and talking. "What news of Frodo and Sam?"

"They are alive." Aragorn said. "As are you." But Intara was shaking her head.

"I heard the surgeon." She took a deep breath and concentrated on Aragorn. "I am glad they are alive…I am glad that my last act…was to save you."

"I wish there had been some other way…."

They sat in silence for some time before Intara laughed softly. "I wish I was able to see home…one last time." She said softly. "I have not been to the sea…in many years."

"I will take you there. I will take you to the sea if that is your last wish."

"I fear I would not see it. Besides…" Intara coughed and released his hand. "Besides, you must prepare to be crowned King of Gondor…uphold the family pride." The surgeon returned to the tent and touched Aragorn's shoulder.

"She needs rest sire." Aragorn rose and left the tent but not without one last look at Intara.

* * *

Aragorn pulled Gandalf aside and spoke quietly to him. The wounded were to be taken back to Minas Tirith for care. Aragorn did not want Intara brought back to the White City. He was not going to bring her back to a city she had no love for just so she could die. The surgeon had given her exactly a week and that's how long Aragorn thought it would take to get her to where her village had been on the western shores. He and Gandalf would accompany her on the trip. Legolas and Gimli would go with Frodo and Sam back to Minas Tirith and await Aragorn and Gandalf there.

"It is fitting she should be buried with her family." Gandalf whispered as she was lifted into a wagon. "It would not do to have her buried in Minas Tirith…she never spent any great deal of time there."

Aragorn mounted his horse and followed the cart, while Gandalf drove it. There were a few others with them, including Merry and Pippin and a few rangers who had known Intara during her service to them.

"I thought she'd live forever." One of them whispered to a comrade. "It was said her mother was an elf…"

"I had heard she'd sold her heart to the dwarves for a marble one so that she'd feel no love in this world." His friend returned. "Did you see her fight? I've never seen anything like it."

"There were many rumors about Intara." Aragorn said, the two rangers turned to look at him. "I think some of them may have had some truth to them."

"I suppose we'll never rightly know which were true and which were not." Gandalf said. "That is the legacy Intara will leave behind."

* * *

Intara occasionally woke and talked to those around her. She laughed at stories some of the rangers told and one day even recounted her life story to Eomer, who had also followed. But each passing day her skin grew paler and she became weaker.

"We are one day away." Gandalf said as they went over a bluff and down into a low valley. They were to go to an area just below the River Isen. It was there that Intara's village had once stood as an insignificant trading post between the sea and the countries of Rohan and Gondor.

"How did her people come to settle here?" One of the rangers asked. "She rode with the Dunedain…her cousins were Dunedain…how would the two be connected when so much land separated them?"

"Her grandfather was Dunedain, but he did not like the mountains. He heard the stories the Numenorean Kings told of the sea and the great Western lands. He left his clan in the care of his brother and started the village on the sea." Aragorn explained. "She was a chieftain's daughter, her great uncle was Isildur."

"She is related to the line of Kings?"

"Not directly enough to make it count. She said she met him once as a child, but he'd already been corrupted by the ring and died within a year."

"She has indeed deserved her rest then." One of the rangers whispered as he gazed reverently at the sleeping woman in the wagon.

* * *

Intara breathed deeply and slowly opened her eyes. A soft breeze blew across her and carried with it the salty tang of the sea mixed with something more fragrant. She looked to where Aragorn rode behind her, his silver eyes locked on her.

"You shouldn't have…you have much to prepare..."

"It was the least I could do for you." He answered.

Yellow flowers bobbed in a field of tall sea grasses. The sand on the beach was a soft white that contrasted with the deep black of the rocks of the cliffs that backed the place where the village had stood. Gandalf stopped the wagon on the rise above the beach and looked down to the place where the village had once been.

"We'll have to carry her down." Gandalf said. "The wagon won't make it." The rangers lifted the stretcher she was on out of the wagon and carried her down the road to the cliffs where they all made camp. They set her down so that she could look out over the sea to where the sun sank into the cobalt waters. Aragorn knelt beside her.

"How could I have forgotten it was so beautiful?" She asked without taking her eyes from the horizon. Aragorn looked over his shoulder to where the blue of the sea met the pink of the sky, the sun, a bright red disk that dipped beneath the horizon and sank slowly. "How could I have stayed away so long?"

"Because you are stubborn." Aragorn said brushing the hair form her face. "And foolhardy." She laughed softly.

"Now I know why the elves travel west. To see where it is the Sun sleeps every day would be a grand thing, don't you think?" She asked thickly.

"It would indeed." Intara looked at her cousin as tears brimmed in his eyes. She reached one hand out weakly and took his strong one.

"You must promise me something." Aragorn leaned close to her to hear her better. "You must not weep for me." He pulled away quickly and looked down at her. "You mustn't." Her hand slipped from his as she fell back to sleep.

* * *

Intara's breathing became shallow in the night and she spent a long time looking out the tent flap at the pin pricks of light that were the stars. She had spent many a night in the deep woods gazing at the stars and never once thought about how she'd lain on the beach with her father learning all their names. There were good memories that were had here, but she'd done her best to forget them along with the bad.

The next morning Aragorn changed her dressing, binding the herbs that were supposed to fight infection within the wrappings. The cut on her side was deep and had turned the skin immediately around it a bright, angry red. The surgeon had said the orc blade had severed bone and broken it spreading more illness throughout her body. The arrow, which had pierced the breast plate of her armor, had lodged itself between two of her ribs and had needed to be cut out. The surgeon had done a good job and hadn't needed to break any more of her ribs to remove it.

"Don't…don't bother with it." Intara said. "It will not help." She coughed and blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. Aragorn wiped it away quickly.

"It will ease the pain." He was sure now that the blade had been poisoned and knew she must have been fighting off a great deal of pain to have lasted as long as she had on the overland trip.

"I shall not live out the night." Aragorn grasped her hand and squeezed gently. "I don't want to…." She tried vainly to remain awake but drifted off to sleep again.

In the afternoon she took a terrible turn for the worse. She coughed on blood that had seeped into her lungs and she could hold neither food nor water in. She refused to eat anything after the first time she'd retched. It hurt her too much to try to go through it again. Her hands shook violently and had taken on a cold clammy feeling to match the pail pallor of her once sun bronzed skin.

"You used to be the strongest woman I knew." Gandalf whispered as he sat beside her. She smiled slightly, all the emotion she could muster in her weakened state. "Now you are a shell of your former self. 'Tis a pity one so young should die."

"I was meant to save a King." Intara whispered. "And I did that." Gandalf nodded. She looked out to where the sun was making its evening descent again and then let her gaze drift to those that milled about. Gandalf could read in her eyes what she was thinking. She did not wish to die around so many people. She'd been a solitary figure in life, and she wished not to have the weeping mourners around her when she died. Merry and Pippin stood in the shadow of the cliffs as Gandalf and Aragorn carried Intara's cot to the edge of the surf.

"What are they doing?" Pippin asked as he watched Aragorn kneel beside the woman they'd first met as Shadow.

"I think they're saying good bye Pip." Merry replied, a catch in his voice, as he saw Aragorn grasp Intara's hand and lower his head.

Intara listened as the sound of the surf surrounded her and the salt stung her lungs. Gandalf whispered words of peace and of a safe journey into the wind. She took a deep breath and smiled.

"Tell Elrond, I'm sorry I must break my contract." Aragorn bowed his head and smiled in spite of the gravity of the moment. The surf licked at his tunic and dampened the hem.

"Always thinking about duty…I'm sure he'll understand." He raised his eyes and watched as she moved her arm slowly off the side of the cot and let her hand drop into the surf. He was glad her eyes were slightly closed and that she would not see the tears brimming at his eyes.

"Tell him I returned to the sea from whence I came…."

"I will…" She turned to face him as her breaths became shorter and quicker. Her mouth moved several times, as if she wanted to say more, but hadn't the strength. As the sun began to sink into the sea, Intara, Ranger of the North, and contracted Rivendell defender, closed her eyes and died.

* * *

Intara was buried on the hillside, over looking the sea that she had loved, but had never allowed herself to return to. A tall white marker was erected over the grave, carved with runes baring her name. It was simple, as she had lived her day to day life. Merry and Pippin had spent time clearing away the grasses from the other graves at the top of the bluff and stood at the foot of Intara's grave while Gandalf said the proper words to help her pass on.

"Come now." Gandalf said when they had thrown the last of the dirt upon her. "We have happier times to look forward to. Let us take a page out of Intara's book and not dwell on what has past, but on what lies ahead."

"Yes….on what lies ahead and not those left behind." Eomer said as the others filtered away. He turned to Aragorn. "We have much to prepare for, you and I."

Aragorn nodded solemnly and Eomer left him to say his final good bye.

"_Be at peace, Aragorn, for I certainly am"._ A voice seemed to whisper around him on the salt scented breeze and he smiled, knowing that at last, Intara had found the rest she had fought so hard to find.

The others mounted their horses and waited until Aragorn joined them. They left the beach slowly and followed the path they had taken on their arrival. Aragorn briefly thought about his cousin and the life she'd lived.

Intara had given much of herself in the service of others. She had refused to share her life with others, and had found only brief moments of happiness in a long line of pain, heartache, and sadness. Even with all the hardships she'd enforced on herself, she'd been loved by many and had done things that were beyond recognition. He wondered if anyone had ever thanked her for the sacrifices she'd made and the deeds she'd accomplished. Her story was one he hoped his sons could take to heart and learn from.

The small group was silent as they rode back towards Gondor and the White City, where Aragorn would be crowned King of Men.

King of a land where there were no _Shadows_.


End file.
